Re: Zi-O - Shattering Time in Another World
by striberx
Summary: Within this world, Oma Zi-O almost took over everything, but was shiftly defeated. Yet word spread that he sent his next heir somewhere else. Now, that heir has arrived into this new world. Will he become the next Demon King, like his predacessor? Or will he change the fate of this world? All will be revealed soon... Iwae! For Zi-O has returned! (Thumbnail created by HackerEX)
1. Chapter 1: Isekai! Return Of Zi-O

Re: Zi-O/Shattering Time In Another World

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Chapter 1: Into A New World! Return of Zi-O

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_**WARNING: I own none of these characters sides from my OC(s). All rights go to their respective owners and properties. **_

_**This is nothing more than, well a fanfic, a story made up by a fan for entertainment and knowledge.**_

_**Everything in this fic is not canon and is only meant to give the audience a new idea of the works of each of the franchises in this story.**_

_**So please support me, my work and have some fun. Now enjoy the story. ^w^**_

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_Thousands of Years ago….._

_It was a very dark and dire time within the Kingdom of Lugnica. An all-out war was occuring, but not between the rivaling countries our people, but against a new kingdom. This kingdom appeared out of the blue and swiftly started to take over their territory. They were using magic and weapons nobody has ever seen before, along with unknown powers too._

_The ruler of this kingdom was mighty and unforgiving as nobody was spared within the ruler's wake. He made sure that those who fight him were to be perished by his might. So many deaths were caused by his hands that everyone soon started to call him a demon lord incarnate, a fitting name for this monster of a person._

_As more blood was split by this monster, the Kingdom of Lugnica had no choice but to go to war with this demon lord. And it went on for several years, so many people on both sides died and felt like it wasn't ever going to end._

_But after so long, it was as if the gods themselves had finally answered the people's prayers. They had made a weapon that could finally deal a massive blow to the demon lord they've been fighting with. Upon reaching the inner castle of this beast, they soon meet with him personally._

_His voice was like that of an elderly man, worn out after fighting for so long. He was clad in black and gold armor with a silver watch strap in the center of the body. Black and gold armor covering his body throughout as the chest looked to be regal in design, as on the right chest piece and shoulder were several silver watches without any faces or clock hands on it. Even his wrist had some odd golden holders that those watches could fit in. _

_Wrapped around his chest to his waist was a golden watch strap-like sash, acting like a royal scarf as behind him were two silver clock hands, posing as a cape. Finally the helmet itself was gold with diamond studs around the outer layer of it, while the face was a dark steel color with three clocks faces on the forehead. There were also two fancy golden clock hands on it, the minute hand on 10 and the hour hand at 2, both rusted due to their age. And within the center were fiery blood red katakana characters that read out "Rider" in an unknown language to the denizens of this world._

_This was the ruler and demon lord that they've been fighting. The Demon King of Time: Oma Zi-O._

_The chosen fighter then stood tall, wielding the weapon that could finally end Oma Zi-O as he and the demon lord soon engaged in an epic duel. While many lives, enemy and ally alike, fell in this battle, the chosen fighter was able to finally deal a killing blow to him. _

_A large gash was made in Oma Zi-O's chest, slicing apart some of the armor and leaving a hole in his exposed chest. As he slumped over and coughed up his own blood, the hero that inflicted this blow stood above the man that had terrorized their kingdom for so many years._

"_It's over Oma Zi-O! Your reign ends here!" The hero said triumphantly._

_The demon king could only laugh as he was slowly dying. "Yes… My time has finally come… But my reign? My power? It will never die." He agreed before coughing up some blood._

"_What? What do you mean?" The hero questioned._

"_Heh… I have discovered… a new world… One that I planned to conquer… Sadly, while that may seem… impossible for myself. I did leave all of my power into this one item…" Oma Zi-O said, weakly holding up one of the watches on his sash, "I sent… one of these into that world… and with it, all of my power… While this body may perish, my power shall live on in infamy."_

"_Y-You… did what?!" The hero gasped in horror, rearing back as he tried to process this revelation._

"_It is as I said.. I sent the last of my strength to that world. It will find my successor, the heir to my name and my throne." He chuckled madly now, forgetting the pain and weakness of his body, "Soon he will come back to this world! And he will finish what I have started. He will rule over you all and my kingdom will be eternal!" _

_Oma Zi-O cackled madly as the hero gripped the weapon and plunged it through the demon lord's heart. The cackling and life of this monster has ended. But, at what cost? He may be gone, but with this information, it won't take long before another will take his place._

_He had to report it to the leaders, he had to bring word of Oma Zi-O's heir. He soon ran out of the castle and told the leaders everything that happened. From the fall of the demon king to the revelation of his successor, he left no detail untold in his story._

_When the hero finished his tale, grief and fear began to spread among them, as this could mean any day at any time, his heir would return. They can only hope that if it's true? That can be dealt with swiftly before whoever Oma Zi-O had chosen gains that same level of power once more._

_Thus, the tale of Oma Zi-O ended. Life continued on as soon he too was forgotten, only in legends and books remained that nobody believed. Yet, the presence he left was still alive and well within most people. The only thing they can hope is that his last words would not come to pass…_

_If only that were true..._

_Meanwhile, in Present Day - Earth..._

It was a very calm afternoon within a snow area up north. Climbers and people who lived there were all going on within their usual day. On top of one of the snowy mountains was a group of people. All young adults as it was a class trip for several college students. It was a goal they had for their science project, and luckily enough they had reached the goal and now were all enjoying a nice trip and climb here.

One of these students was a young man with messy, yet dirty blonde hair with blue eyes, though covered in the snow-gear he wore as he climbed his way with his class, along with an odd accessory around his neck. It looked like a pocket watch with a black and gray casing, but it had no numbers, clock hands or anything on it apart from the exposed gears that were starting to get frosted.

This young man was named Cody Aldrich, as he was eager for this trip. While this was his first climb on such difficult terrain, he was eager for something new, and was enjoying every second of it.

"Alright class, once we get to this next checkpoint, we're turning back. It's getting late and we would rather not be up here for nightfall. Especially since a storm is coming." Their teacher informed the whole class, as while some understood, there were others who softly groaned as they wanted to get to the top.

Cody could only sigh with some relief. It was becoming very difficult to reach the top of the mountain they're on, so resting for today was what he needed as his feet were screaming in agony from the harsh travel. He soon gripped his watch, looking at it softly with wonder in his eyes.

"Good luck charm, still working." He said to himself. He was unsure when he got this as he could only remember having it with him since his birth. It was his heirloom but also his treasure, something he just couldn't part with. He only wished he knew why he had it.

"Mr. Aldrich?" a voice called out to him.

"Hm?" Cody blinked, snapping out of his stupor as he looked up. "Yes?"

"You can stare at your belongings when we return to the lodge…" his teacher told him, giving the teenager a stern look, "You should not just stop to smell the roses when on a hike like this. Lest you end up on the receiving end of an avalanche"

"S-Sorry, sir." Cody apologized to the teacher as he put it back in his pocket, now being aware of the situation as he followed the rest of the class back to the lodge.

Once they returned, the class soon breathed a sigh of relief. "Finally! I'm glad we don't have to go up that stupid mountain again!" a student groaned as he put his bag down.

"Heat… finally…" Another student said, rushing over to the fireplace to warm up.

Some of the staff of the lodge were ready as they handed them some warm towels, drinks and food to replenish the group. Many were soon chatting about other things, or showing off the pictures they took along the trip to where they were before.

As Cody began to sit down, he soon took out his trinke and began the process of removing the frost that had been built up from the hike. "Yeesh, can't these things be easier to thaw?" he groaned.

"You know you could always just throw yourself into the fire, right Aldrich?" One student responded with a smirk before the small group he was with laughed at his joke.

"Yeah, yeah very funny…" Cody groaned as he rolled his eyes. He brought out his phone as he looked through whatever messages or stuff people have shared around that he followed, looking at the comments on his posts about the trip. It was mostly comments from their family and friends about how happy they were to see them go but to also remind the class to stay safe. He chuckled softly as he knew they meant well, but so far the trip has been more safe than a kids ball pit.

As he put his phone away, he went back to fixing the pocketwatch when all of a sudden, he noticed his teacher was looking around the class. "Excuse me? Is Miss Tsukihime with you?" he asked one group who shook their heads before asking him why.

It got more confusing as he soon started talking to the other groups with a worried look, only to frown heavily with concern as he walked to the lodge staff.

"Excuse me?" he asked the guide who was leading the group through the mountain, he was in the middle of asking the groups as well before the boy came up to him. The guide soon explained to them that one of his classmates was not with her group.

Cody too had a worried frown on his face. He soon had a recall of something he saw as he swiftly took out his phone and began to scroll back through the feed of people he followed, and while he did follow Tsukihime, he didn't realize something else about her. Upon looking through her profile and more, his eyes shrunk as he soon saw that she was of the adventurous type.

Putting two and two together, he pocketed his phone as he rushed up to the teacher, "I think Tsukihime is trying to get to the top of the mountain on her own!" He called to them, as they turned, "Listen, I just recalled that she was a thrill-seeker, meaning she would take this storm as a challenge to beat the mountain. I think she went up there so she could do that." He informed them.

Frantic, the teacher told the guide to get some hiking gear as they prepared to make their way back up the mountain to find her. Unbeknownst to them however, Cody decided to throw on his own hiking gear in order to help with the search efforts.

"Tsukihime! Tsukihime!" The people, including Cody, cried out, hoping she would respond or find some way to track her down faster before the storm gets worse. They soon found her, resting her hand on a tree with clear signs of exhaustion.

Cody grunted as he marched on, slowly reaching towards her. "Tsukihime! You need to stop! The storm is too much for this!" He called out to her, hoping to talk her down.

"Cody?! Is that you?" she gasped as she unintentionally exposed his location to the teacher and the guide, who were shocked to see him there.

"MR. ALDRICH! JUST WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING HERE?!" the teacher roared with a mixture of disapproval and fear in his voice.

"Helping! What does it look like?" He snapped back.

"It's too risky to be here!" the guide warned him, "The storm could be here at any minute!"

"I know! But the longer we wait, the more dangerous it is for her! I'd rather help out than sit and wait around!"

As Cody went closer towards Tsukihime, his eyes widened in fear as he saw that she was clutching her leg in pain. There was blood where her hand was and from the looks of it, she has been here for quite a while.

'_Crap… This is going to be more difficult than I thought.'_ He said within his thoughts, but strived to continue until she was safe. "It's going to be okay! Just relax and wait for me!" He shouted as the winds started to pick up.

Cody briefly stopped to keep himself stedy before continuing to push through, slowly reaching Tsukihime. "Just hang onto me, okay?" He said to her, reaching out for her free hand. She soon grasped it as he slung it over his shoulder.

The young man continued to track down to the guides and teacher below, slowly making each step to them. He felt the cold brush of wind hit him as he too was starting to get cold and numb from it. It was a very heavy storm, yet he needed to continue.

However as he got closer to the adults, he soon heard something that would make his blood run cold...

"AVALANCHE!"

Without thinking, Cody flung Tsukihime as hard as he could off of him before turning towards the large barrelling wave of snow and ice coming right towards him. The last thing he ever saw before he was buried in a thick sheet of ice was the teacher catching her and setting her down...

XXX

Within the domain of the a certain lord, standing tall behind rows of forest was a mansion. It was large and vast as it seemed to be owned by someone very rich and powerful. Yet near a small area in the back of the land sat a young woman having some tea alone.

She had long silvery hair with purple and blue eyes. Her outfit was very regal and unique as it too had the same colorings as her hair and eyes, yet with the addition of a few extra accessories, a twin tail coat and very expanded sleeves.

She was watching the birds fly overhead as she set the teacup down. A soft sigh escaping her lips as today was a very peaceful day. She did ponder if she wanted to visit the town nearby or just head to the city for a look around as while she wasn't bored, she knew she could be doing something better.

'_What to do, what to do…'_ she pondered in her mind as she circled her teacup with her finger.

But soon a flash occured, as Puck flew out in front of her. It was a small cat with a bag around it, and one ear folded with a ring piercing it.

"You know you could always just ask me to entertain you, Emilia." He said with a chuckled, already knowing what she's thinking.

"Oh, Puck!" she said with a smile, "I forgot about that. I guess today's put me in a bit of a daze lately…"

"Well, why not walk it off? A good walk would help jog something for you to do." Puck offered.

"That would be ideal...it doesn't seem to be any signs of rain." the girl noted as she looked at the sky. With a smile, she decided to get up and take a small walk through the village. Sure enough, it was a rather quiet day as most of the adults were preparing for the day ahead of them while the children played in the streets.

As she neared the entrance of the village, she heard a strange noise which caused her to stop in her tracks. When she looked around for the noise, a bright light appeared as a snow-covered Cody fell from the sky and onto her.

"Wow~! I always knew you had some attraction, Emilia!" Puck chuckled softly at his joke as he floated around them.

Emila however was not amused by this as Cody began to regain his senses. When he opened his eyes, he noticed that he was no longer on the mountain in the middle of a snowstorm, but on a dirt road in the middle of the country.

"Where… am I?" He groaned softly, "H-Heaven?"

As he shook off some of the snow, he soon began to hold his throbbing head in an attempt to calm it down. "Oww…" he groaned once more as the headache caused by the avalanche started to subside.

However as he did so, he grasped what he thought was the ground, causing an audible squeak to escape Emila's lips. This alearted the boy as he looked down and saw that he was grasping the mortified girl's chest.

"Can… you get off… of me?" The girl's voice rang out, making the blonde flinch.

"O-Oh! I'm sorry!" He responded, hopping off of the girl under him, only to flinch and be in awe as he soon began to stare at her. '_B-Beautiful…'_ he thought.

"How dare you… How dare you grope her!?" Puck said as he flew towards Cody with rage in his eyes. But when he punched his chest, the young man didn't feel a thing as the cat creature, while looking angry, was also acting playfully.

"Did… you just talk?" Cody got out, confused by the situation, "Wait, can you fly?!"

"That's your second question?" Puck responded, floating up to him, tilting his head, "Odd clothes you got."

He soon looked at himself and saw that he had his hiking gear on. He soon began to sweat as he realized that he was wearing winter clothes in what looked to be the middle of summer. He quickly unzipped and took off the heavy clothing as he sighed with relief.

Puck only flew to Emilia and "whispered" to her, "He's sure a weird one, huh?" He said audibly.

"Are you sure?" she responded, "We did just see him come out of the sky with snow on him…"

"I know! He must've tried to jump through some magic portal he made." Puck snickered.

"Magic? Uh… that doesn't exist." Cody countered, earning a shocked look from the two.

"Wait, excuse me but, why the heck would you think that?" Puck asked.

"Well 'cause… it's true?" He pointed out. "Whatever magic we discovered, was nothing more than something we couldn't explain. Well, other than miracles, but that's different."

This response however just confused the two further. "Are you sure you're okay?" Emila asked him with concern, "You did have a bit of a headache when you arrived here…"

"I'm perfectly fine." He responded, crossing his arms.

However she wasn't convinced, not in the slightest.

"Maybe we should cancel the walk and have him looked at?" Puck whispered to her, while pointing his thumb at the boy. She soon gave a nod of approval as she cleared her throat.

"Perhaps you should come with us?" she asked the boy.

"I said I'm fine." He responded but upon stepping forward, his legs gave out as he fell to the ground, "Um… then again… it couldn't help to see if I'm ok?" He said, reluctantly agreeing to them.

Emila chuckled a bit as she reached out her hand towards the boy. "Come on, I'll just call for some transportation" she offered as she helped Cody back on his feet.

"Thank you." He said, taking her hand and standing back up as he followed her.

She soon waved in the air as a medium sized machine flew towards them and opened it's hatch.

"Woah! You have flying vehicles?" He gawked with awe.

"Of course! Now come on, I'm driving!" she said as Puck winced in fear.

Cody didn't notice the wince as he climbed in, awe that a place like this that believes in magic has such high grade technology.

"I'd best prepare yourself...this isn't the last one she's trashed…" the familiar warned him as he saw Emila get into the control mechanism.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Cody questioned, not understanding the situation.

"You'll see…" Puck sighed as he shrugged his shoulders in a defeated manner.

Cody still didn't understand, but upon starting to take off, he got that creeping feeling down his spine. And in moments instead of a soft ride, it was a rushed sprint, taking off into the sky as Cody screamed out in fear, gripping his seat like a cat.

"H-Haven't you driven this thing before?!" He cried out.

"Only twice on my own!" she told him, making the fear in his heart worse

"Land it, land it, land it now!" He cried out in utter fear as he frantically looked around for a way to escape.

"Oh don't worry, we'll be at my place soon enough." She smiled innocently, despite the fact Cody swore he saw his life flash before him for the second time.

Thankfully however, they soon returned to the mansion without incident, at least not until Cody ran out of the machine to vomit due to the sheer G-forces he had just experienced.

"Ugh… never have I ever experienced this before…" Cody groaned upon finishing his hurl. He soon began to wipe the bile before looking towards the mansion in front of him, gawking in awe. "You live here?!"

Emila merely nodded as she noticed a young man running hastily towards her as fast as he could.

He looked to be a bit younger than Cody with spiky black hair and yellow eyes. His attire mostly consisted of a black uniform with a white cape, white dress pants, and metal greaves and boots. What caught the boy's attention was a pair of straps on the boy's arms, each one holding a pair of pocketwatches that each resembled the one he had.

"Princess!" the boy shouted as he finally reached the trio, stopping to catch his breath. "W-Welcome back!" he said before giving a salute to the girl.

"Thanks, Rex." She smiled, "Oh, this is one of my personal guards." She introduced him to Cody.

"Is he a guest of yours?" the guard asked the girl after lowering his arm.

"Yes. We're seeing if he's okay, since he came out of nowhere." Emilia nodded, "Please have Rem and Ram brew something for him?"

"Right away ma'am!" he said before muttering under his breath, 'And I just got here…'. With determination, he quickly turned around and ran back into the mansion.

"He seems nice." Cody said with a smile. However they soon heard a crash as they saw he had accidentally tripped and stumbled into the nearby garden.

"I'm okay!" he shouted before getting up from his crash site and heading into the mansion.

"He is." Emilia giggled, mostly out of pity for the boy.

"Is he always like this?" Cody asked out of curiosity.

"Yes, but he does mean well." Emilia nodded, "This is kind of his first job in fact, so he's trying to do his best to keep this place safe and sound."

"Well, always gotta start somewhere." Cody smiled as they entered the mansion.

Upon entering the mansion, the young man looked around with wonder. The interior was amazing, filled with marble, sculpted stone and more laid the foundation while the decor that hung or placed along the walls were present. It was simply breathtaking to see, even if it was a rich man's dream in the flesh, he could tell Emilia wasn't that kind of person to be following the greed.

They soon entered a rather sizable looking dining room, where a pair of twins in maid outfits were waiting for them alongside Rex, who was still scuffed up from his earlier crash as one of them was helping him with his muddied appearance.

"You need to be more careful, Rex." the maid with pink hair said, applying some ointment to his scratches.

"Sorry, I just didn't want to clean up another Arc Mazine after the last time she flew solo…" he sighed as he scratched the back of his head

"At least know where you land before jumping around." she sighed, "Those thorn bushes can still hurt."

"I know that now…" Rex sighed as he took out a thorn from his cheek.

'_Oookay, so he's not just a normal rookie guardsman, but he's a fresh-out-of-school graduate with barely any experience…' _Cody thought as he watched the scene unfold before him.

The other maid, who had baby blue hair, soon nudged the pink maid who had just finished getting the last of the thorns out of Rex's uniform. The pink-haired maid stopped as she saw that Emila and Cody had arrived.

"Oh! Lady Emilia! I'm sorry, we didn't know you were there." She said, before she and the blue haired maid bowed, before the pink pulled Rex's head down as well.

"We have the food and tea prepared for the guest, Lady Emila." the blue haired maid informed her as she motioned towards the table, which had some freshly made basket of bread, some soup, and a teacup for the two to enjoy.

"O-Oh, wow… You didn't have to go that far." Cody said, looking to Emilia with shock and awe.

"It's fine…" she said reassuringly with a smile. Cody soon smiled as well as Rex looked at them with confusion.

"Do you two, know each other?" he asked the two as he tilted his head before looking at the two, "Friends? Cohorts? Lovers?"

From the moment they heard the last part, both Cody and Emilia flinched as they blushed a deep red from the young knight's comment.

"W-What? No… We're not like that. We just met." The two said in unison, looking at one another before back to him.

Rex's eyebrow soon raised as he gave an inquisitive look, "You sure about that?"

"Yes Rex, we are." Emilia said, "He fell out from some portal, and we're making sure he's fully okay."

"Portal? That's new…" Rex noted as he folded his arms, "The guy knows some magic? Or does he have a magic-based Ridewatch with him?"

"Again with the magic." Cody groaned, "I'm telling ya, it doesn't exist. I mean, you just used a flying vehicle. Thats tech, not magic."

This surprised the trio as they turned to Emila.

"Now you see why we're making sure he's okay." Puck chimed in, popping in from Emila's jewel and in Cody's line of sight.

"I can prove it, heck, I have some tech with me too." He said, before reaching into his pocket and took out his smartphone.

"That some kind of FaizPhone?" Rem asked.

"Eh? FaizPhone?" He blinked in confusion, "So you do have phones! Again, tech not magic."

The maids soon decided to take a look at him to see if there were any other injuries from the fall.

"He seems fine" the blue-haired maid noted, "Other than some hypothermia, it looks like he is perfectly fine"

"Maybe he's dumb?" the pink-haried maid added.

"Oi! Boku wa baka janai!" Cody snapped with his Japanese lessons.

"Oh great, as if two Rexes were bad enough…" the blue haired mage sighed.

"I heard that!" Rex snapped at the mage.

"Huh? Wait, you know Japanese?" Cody turned to Rex.

"Uhh yeah? It's kind of essential if you want to become a knight" Rex said as he lowered his guard.

"Huh… that's… kind of different?" Cody blinked for a moment.

Rex soon got a good look at the boy, "You aren't from around here, are you?" he asked him as he held his finger to his chin.

"No, I don't even know 'where' I'm at." Cody responded.

"You're in the Kingdom of Luginca, specifically the home of Roswaal L Mathers" Emila answered

Cody pondered for a moment, letting that knowledge sink in before he looked at his phone and began to scroll through it, "Well… 'this' is where I live." He said, before showing the screen to them all, and the map of the world he lives in.

"That looks nothing like the maps we have…" Rex noted as he looked at it.

"Yeah… cause that's where I'm from." He responded with a sigh before pocketing his phone. "Guess I truly did get transported."

This caused some confusion to rise from Rex, "Wait, transported? How?" the rookie knight asked.

"I… was caught in an avalanche trying to save a fellow classmate of mine." He said as he recalled what had happened before arriving to this world.

"So, you died?" the blue haired maid asked.

"I…. have no idea. Maybe?" He shrugged, unsure how this is even happening in the first place.

"Regardless, we should inform the boss about this" Rex suggested as he put his arms over his head.

"Boss?" Cody questioned, only for them all to hear the doors open, turning their heads to the door.

Out came a tall man with blue hair, heterochromatic eyes, and was wearing what looked to be some kind of mix between a formal suit and a jester's uniform.

'_A-A clown?' _He gawked in his thoughts.

"Ahh, I see that you have returned in one piece Lady Emila" the clown said as he entered the room, "I assume that this matter would be dire given how fast you were flying…"

"Yes it was, Roswaal." Emilia nodded, before gesturing to Cody.

"Oh, we have a guest?" he asked as he walked towards the boy.

"Um… hello. I'm Cody Aldrich." He introduced, already feeling an intense aura from him. He wasn't just someone new to him as he could feel the tension.

"Greetings young man" he said, "I am Rosell L Mathers, owner of this fine mansion. I assume you have met some of the staff members here?"

"I have." He nodded in response.

"He came out of some portal after being caught in an avalanche." Ram informed him.

"An avalanche?" he repeated, "You must have been either very brave or very stupid if you were caught in one of those.

"I was trying to save a fellow classmate who went up a mountain alone." He added on.

"On your own?" Rex asked, kind of interested in where this story was going.

"While others were involved, I did climb up to help her myself." He nodded. "She hurt herself and I had to sling her over, but once that avalanche came, I tossed her off of me to the others."

"Wow, that's pretty ballsy for you man" Rex praised.

"I just couldn't sit there and patiently wait. I wanted to help even if that meant my own life in danger." Cody said.

This made the young knight smirk with approval as he gave the boy a thumbs up.

"My my, you're quite the brave soul then" Roswall noted with confidence.

"Thank you." Cody smiled.

"So.. you have no way to return home?" Emilia asked as Cody nodded. She looked at him with a soft expression before looking to Roswaal with a pleading look.

The man soon smiled, "I suppose we could make some living arrangements for Mr. Aldrich…"

"Eh? You'll.. You'll do that for me?" He questioned with some surprise.

"Yeah, we can't just let you live out in the streets. What kind of people do you think we are?" Rex retorted as he lowered his arms.

"Hehe, thank you. I promise I'll find some way to repay your kindness." Cody smiled.

"You can first start by eating the meal before it gets cold." Ram said, pushing the plate to him.

He soon began to eat the meal heartily as Emila just sipped her tea. This was an interesting day for the girl, first she wanted to go for a morning walk, the next sees her meet Cody and find out he came from another world.

Of course, out in the woods was a figure, covered by the shadows of the trees. Glaring down at the mansion with a binocular, finding its target, but won't strike just yet. That and her death comes later.

XXX

It was brand new day for Cody as he woke up in a rather simple looking bedroom. He yawned softly as he hadn't had a good slumber in such a long time. A satisfying pop was heard as he stretched himself before dressing up, even his clothes were given the nice treatment as he placed them on before heading out into the mansion hallways.

As he walked through, he noticed Rex was walking past him. "Mornin'!" the young knight greeted.

"Likewise Rex. Doing the normal routine?" He asked.

"Eyup! I do this every day to make sure that nobody's gonna break in and steal anything" the young knight answered

"Hm? Does Emilia-hime have any enemies?" Cody questioned.

"Like you wouldn't believe, bud…" Rex noted as his smile dropped.

"Why? She's so sweet and kind." He asked.

"You know what they say, power corrupts…" Rex said before walking away.

"Oh…" Cody frowned softly as he looked in the other direction before making his way. He wanted to talk to Emilia and learn more from her, along with why she's even targeted like that. He soon found her walking out of her room.

"Ah! There you are, Emilia." He smiled softly.

"Cody! Good to see that you had a nice rest." Emila said with a smile.

"Ahh! Good morning my lady!" a new voice said as they turned to see a man much older than Cody greet them. He wore a black, grey and tanned outfit with a green scarf around his neck and a book in hand.

"Hm? Who's that?" Cody asked her.

"That's just Woz, my advisor" she told him before greeting the eccentric man.

"So, this is the boy that everyone's been talking about yesterday?" he asked, "I apologize as I was in the middle of helping Lady Beatrice."

"It's okay, Woz. I know how busy that can be when she requires your help." Emilia smiled.

"Thank you my lady" he said after bowing down.

"So what were you helping this Beatrice with?" Cody questioned.

"Oh just the usual reforming of the library." He shrugged, "Of course, I still took my time to re-read, 'A Maou's End'." He said, holding up said book.

"Maou? Wait, there was a demon lord in this world?" Cody said.

"Sadly…" she said, "There used to be a demon king by the name of Oma Zi-O. He was known as the Demon King of Time, ruling over his kingdom with an iron fist and cruel heart:

"Even though he was feared, I cannot help but be admired by his goal and what he did. As evil as he was, it was something to behold!" Woz beamed with enjoyment.

"Of course you would, Green Scarf…" Rex said, surprising the trio as to how he got here.

"Oh, Rex. You only have issues with that because of your bloodline and legacy." Woz stated.

"Hey, you butt out of my family's business Green Scarf! This has nothing to do with you!" the young knight snapped. While he did not know the boy well, Cody could tell that this anger was very out-of-character for him.

"Sorry, sorry. I forget how sensitive you are with that topic." Woz apologized before bowing, "If you excuse me, my lady. But I must go as Roswaal askes of me."

The man soon walked off as Rex began to simmer down. He breathed a sigh of frustration as he looked towards the two. "Sorry about that guys…" he apologized as he gave a quick bow towards the princess, "I normally don't shout like that…"

"It's okay, Rex. I understand." Emilia said, "Besides, you should know Woz loves to tease you."

"As if Green Scarf doesn't do that enough…" Rex grumbled as he folded his arms and glared in the advisor's direction.

"Oh that reminds me..." Cody turned to Emilia, "Mind if we chat? I kinda wanna learn more about you, Emilia."

"I'd recommend heading to Beatrice's library if I were you" Rex noted as he began to walk away, "It's probably got what you need right there."

"Really? 'Cause… I also wanna know why others are after her." He asked Emila.

"That's… a bit personal…" Emilia responded softly, "I'd agree with Rex…" She said before walking off.

"I… did something dumb, didn't I?" He looked to Rex, who was still a bit pissed off from Woz's comment.

"No, it's just...she's been through a lot." He told him before looking at the Emilia who left their view.

"I can understand…" Cody nodded looking around before heading to one door, and upon opening it, he sees the library, "Eh? It was right here?" He got out.

"Who are you?" a voice asked him, making the boy look down. Standing there was a very young girl, wearing a very frilly princess-like outfit along with a crown on her head.

"Oh, I'm sorry there. I didn't know you were right in front of me." He said before kneeling down to meet with her at her height.

"I'll ask again, who are you?" the girl asked him.

"Um, well, I'm Cody. I'm staying here thanks to Emilia and Roswaal." He informed her.

"So, you're the boy from another world?" she noted, "Well at least you're somewhat polite…"

"Why wouldn't I be?" He questioned.

"Because if you would, I would have thrown you out without question" she answered without changing her expression.

"Huh? Wait, how old are you?" He asked, gawked and not realizing that was the wrong question.

"You know that it's not polite to ask a woman about her age…" she growled as he could see her get somewhat visibly angry.

He flinched as he felt her anger, "I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you."

"Too late." She said, placing her hand on his forearm, only for a shock to flow through him before he was flung back and the door closed in front of him. He soon flew right through a window and into the flower patch below.

"Ow… That… was… the worst pain… I've felt…" Cody groaned out, laying there as he tried to recollect himself. As he got up, he soon found himself face-to-face with Emila, who stopped to see him fly through the window.

"Are you okay?" She asked him.

"Met Beatrice… And messed up by asking her the No. 1 rule no man should make to a girl…" He groaned out. Emila could only shake her head as she lightly chuckled at the dirt on the boy's face.

"Well, now you know." she said with a soft smile, helping him up. "Don't take it personally. Beatrice is well…. How do I put this…?"

"A shut-in?" He responded.

"Yes… but she does mean well. Just keep being nice to her and respect her, and she'll warm up to you in no time." She suggested.

"Spite you having that same issue." Puck sighed with a shrug.

"Puck!" she pouted

Cody could only chuckle softly, "Well, guess we can learn together then?"

However as they began to stare, suddenly they heard a strange roar come from the forest. "What was that?" Cody asked as he saw several guards leap into action.

"I-I don't know. It's not a Demon Beast…" She pondered.

However that question was soon answered a jet of fire came from the forest and hit some of the guards. Rex soon arrived and took out his weapon, a red and black axe that had yellow hirigana on the inside spelling out "Axe".

_**ZIKAN ZAXE**_

_**OH NO!**_

"Hold the line! Don't let whatever's attacking us to reach the mansion!" Rex shouted as he flipped a part of the blade, causing it to transform into a small bow and arrow which had the hirigana for Bow on it.

_**YOU ME!**_

The young knight soon began firing off several shots at the emerging creature.

It looked humanoid, with a very draconic styling to it. It had a resemblance to a mage from earth, with a red gem coloring to its body and face, while having a skull motif added onto it. The robes it had were slightly torn and wrinkled as his head also was in a shape of a ring, with its mask serving as the gem, and finally he had a large red gem on his left hand as a bone hand on his waist.

_**WIZARD...**_

"What is that thing?" Cody gasped as he and Emila backed away from the scene.

"Protect Princess Emilia!" Rex command as he and the guards either fired arrows, magic spells or energy attacks at the beast. But it simply placed its hand on the bone-handed belt.

_**FLAME...**_

A ball of fire soon flew out of its hand as it not only defended against the onslaught, but launched at the guards, striking them down and weakening them.

Rex soon growled as he took something out from his jacket, "There's no way I'm letting monsters like you roam free!"

"Rex! You promised not to use that unless it's the only thing left to do!" Emilia called out, stopping the boy from doing so while alerting the monster.

"You…" the beast growled, pointing at the princess menacingly as Rex took out a strange clock-like device from his jacket.

"Sorry, Emilia, but this seems too important!" He said as he put it to his waist, forming a light grey belt around his waist.

_**ZIKU DRIVER!**_

He took out one of the watches on his arm, but as soon as he pressed it, nothing occurred. "H-Huh? Why isn't it working?" He questioned, constantly pressing the button several times with nothing happening.

The monster glared at Rex before lunging at him and kicked him back to the two, tossing the belt next to Cody's feet. He looked towards Emilia as it began to approach her, only for Cody to stand in between.

"Cody, are you crazy?!" Rex growled as he got up and gripped his bow.

"It's obvious its after Emilia. I may not have much, but I can at least stall it! Get going!" He said, charging it and tackling it to the ground.

Rex, not wanting him to get hurt, changing his bow back into it's axe mode and pressing the button on it.

_**TIME CHARGE!**_

_**5, 4, 3, 2, 1!**_

_**ZERO TIME!**_

_**ZAKKURI WARI!**_

"Take this!" the young knight roared as he threw his axe like a tomahawk at the monster, using the built-up power to knock it away from Cody.

"My, my, isn't this a problem?" Woz's voice called out as he teleported next to them, "What is this beast?"

"Don't know. But it's dangerous. Please tell me you have something in your spells that can deal with it?" Rex grunted.

"No sadly, I don't know what spell would work for this kind of monster…" Woz admitted before noticing that Cody was wearing the belt.

"So this thing is some sort of weapon?" He questioned.

"That, was supposed to be my way of taking that thing down!" Rex stated as he performed a baseball slide and grabbed the axe.

"Well, it's obvious it's not working for you, so why not let me test and try it? Can't help but try? 'Sides, I don't wanna just sit here again." Cody told him "I want to help, I want to make sure Emilia is safe. If this monster wants to fight? Then let's see how well it can do against me!"

This declaration soon caused a bright light to shine from his jacket. When he reached into it, he soon took out his trinket which began to change.

_**THE CLOCK RIDER WHO FIGHTS USING RIDEWATCHES IS...**_

Soon, the black, faceless watch turned into one with a white cover, a date showing '2018' and what looked to be half of a face on it. He blinked as he gripped the dial and turned it, revealing a mask with some letters on it, only for him to press the button.

_**ZI-O!**_

"Zi-O?" Rex gasped, recognizing the name that the Ridewatch had declared.

Cody felt the belt as he could feel the grooves on it, only to slide the watch onto the right hand side before pressing the top button, causing it to slant. Soon, an odd jingle came about as a large, translucent clock appeared behind him. Oddly the young man could feel his muscles move, making a pose as if this was natural, he looked at the others before back to the monster.

"Henshin!" He cried out, moving his hand to swipe the slanted device, causing it to spin, before the clock behind him did the same, only for the hands to collide at the top before slightly parting, revealing a familiar face behind him.

_**RIDER TIME! **_

_**KAMEN~ RIDER~! ZI-O!**_

Soon, several magenta and pink gears swirled around the young man, only to break away revealing a set of armor. But the letters behind him flew out before colliding onto the mask in front of him, completing the change.

The young man now stood there with a steel grey armor, with a clock strap on his chest, and with some slight pinkish coloring to the bits of the armor, while the face resembled a clock, with the letters on there representing the words "Rider" on them, in a bold pink coloring…. Yet this was also a familiar face to the others.

"Could it be?" Woz gasped in awe while Rex looked on in absolute horror, '_No, this isn't possible...Don't tell me I just met Oma Zi-O's successor?' _

Soon, Woz raised his arm outward, "Iwae! Prostrate yourself, monster! For you are in the presence of a mighty being, reborn! The one to inherit his power, and become the ruler of time and space! Please, welcome back the power of the demon king once more! For his name is, Kamen Rider Zi-O!"

"Eh? Wait, what?" Cody got out, confused.

"Waga, Maou. For now, fight. We can talk later." Woz said, making the young man turn back to the monster.

Snapping out of his fear, Rex immediately seized the opportunity and landed a pair of axe strikes on the monster. He then kicked the beast in the stomach before attempting to plunge his weapon into the it's skull, only for it to merely bounce off and cut the opponent instead.

Cody didn't hesitate either as he rushed in, gripping the monster by the neck only to smack him with a powerful punch, casting sparks off of its hide, showing he did a lot more damage than the others as it flung from the force of the strike.

"W-Wow.. Didn't know I was that strong now." Cody got out.

Frustrated, Rex tried to activate the watch once more but the dial wouldn't budge. 'Come on, work damn you!' he growled as he struggled to activate the watch.

"Do I have any weapons?" Cody questioned, feeling his armor.

Suddenly, a black, silver and gunmetal grey sword appeared from within the Driver and into the boy's hands. It had a watchstrap-like design with the katakana letters on it reading out "Sword".

_**ZIKAN GIRADE!**_

_**KEN!**_

"Wow, neat." Cody quipped, looking up at the monster before rushing as he made a clean slice, cutting part of the metal off of its body. He swung a few more times as the monster flung back, somewhat weakened. "Time to end this!" He said before pressing the watch and then titled the belt.

_**FINISH TIME!**_

Once he spun it again, several pink katakana letters formed in a circle around the monster as Cody leaped into the air.

_**TIME BREAK!**_

He soon came flying down towards it, as the katakana letters soon began to combine before flying between the monster, striking it and soon flying to Cody. He extended his leg into a flying side kick as the letters collapsed and combined into the sole of his boot before he came crashing down, striking the monster with the attack and sending it flying, only for a large explosion to erupt from where it was, leaving nothing in sight for them as he landed back onto the ground.

"Bravo! Bra~vo!" Roswall said as he walked out of the mansion to greet everyone.

"Excellent first battle, waga maoh…" Woz said as he bowed before the young man.

"I… can't believe that… you had such power, Cody." Emilia said with awe, as the young man powered down.

"Yeah… me neither…" He said, looking at himself. However, he soon turned towards Rex who looked like he had the wind kicked out of him. "You okay, Rex?"

"Yeah… I am…" He said, standing up as he soon walked off. Upon leaving them, he had a look of disgust. '_He's… the new Zi-O…. He's… the reason I'm all alone…. He… must die.' _He said within his thoughts before leaving them.

* * *

(Insert Opening - Oath Sign - AmaLee ver.)

* * *

**/PRELUDE/**

As the choir begins to sing, we see a shot of the castle where Oma Zi-O was killed. The camera pans slowly going through the ruins before reaching a clock that is forever pointed at 2 and 10. The title soon fades in afterwards.

**/Once again, **

**I reach my hand into a world, repeating on end/**

Jumping ahead, it soon shows Emila skipping around a field as Cody watches on. He soon looks at the Zi-O Ridewatch in his hand as he begins to remember his past life.

**/Though it's dark, **

**could my tears carve a path/**

As the young teen looks to his side, the camera pans to a bustling town, where Rex is leaning on a wall in a nearby alleyway. He soon gets up as he walks out, passing by a wandering Reinhard.

**/And lead me straight to your heart?/**

The screen immediately jumps to Subaru, looking around before several black hands begin to reach out

**/Like a rose that blooms and grows inside my chest, your name's all it knows**

**your name's all it knows/**

Jumping to a shot of a blank Ridewatch, Rem and Ram are teaching Cody something before jumping to Woz watching Subaru get kicked out of the library by Beatrice.

**/Is this fate, 'cause every day I pray**

**That right here by your side, I can stay/**

Next it jumps to Rex and Reinhard sparring with one another while the others watched. As the two clashed weapons, we see a brief flash forward to an old knight and a young Rex

**/I'll gather these fallen flowers**

**The hope, discarded and broken/**

The next scene has Cody standing in the middle of a black void as he equips the Ziku-Driver and activates the Zi-O Ridewatch.

**/And I'll join them where they can meet/**

The scene switches to Rex seeing Cody from afar with the Zi-O Ridewatch, only to glare at him as he straps his on as well and activates the Geiz Ridewatch.

**/A wish, together I'll set them free/**

As Cody prepares to transform into Zi-O, projections of the various Heisei Riders appear around the boy as he prepares to battle.

**/Holding up the light within**

**And with no hesitation**

**To give you a future is all I've wanted/**

Once he spun his driver, a bright light quickly shined as we skip to Zi-O and Geiz surrounded by several monsters and a few Another Riders. They soon gave a nod to each other as they took down anyone who got near them

**/Hold me tight through these dark endless nights**

**Screaming 'till the morning light/**

As the Riders fought, Subaru, Emilia, Rem and Ram were dealing with the issues of the Cults that plague the world, along with the faint shadow of Satella puppeting the timeline with her dark magic. Causing several flashes of images of failed timelines, but thanks to Subaru, he slowly helps them to the right one.

**/All my broken-down ideals**

**I know one day they will heal/**

As Zi-O and Geiz continue to charge forth through the castle, they are met by Tid and Finis, who are holding the Another Kuuga and Another Zi-O Ridewatches as the shadowy images of the Another Riders stood with them.

**/With every step they will form the future**

**I'll hold tightly to this special bond that we share**

**I'll follow you anywhere/**

The rest soon arrive as the spirits of the various Heisei Riders stand by their side. With a jump, both Zi-O and Geiz fly forward and perform a Double Rider Kick as the world fades to white before fading to show what appears to be Cody standing alone on a hill.

**/Carrying onward, bearing this miracle/**

As Cody turns to where the sun rises, it's soon shown that the others were by his side with their shadows now resembling the Heisei Riders.

* * *

A/N:

HackerEX: I LIVE AGAIN! Wait...this isn't my account…

Striberx: HAHA! I've done it! I've snatched a new person into my grasp! :3

HackerEX: Hey, you there! Where the heck am I?

Striberx: You are within my domain now! And you're punishment… is a collab! :3

HackerEX: You're kidding me? A collab? With a guy who suffers from chronic laziness?

Striberx: Hey, I have other things going on with my life to make it harder to write.

HackerEX: Fair enough...so, looks like this our second time writing something Zi-O related...well third time for me if my history on this site is to be believed…

Striberx: Either way, yes, hello minna. Time for a new collab to get this year going even more so. As you can see? HackerEX offered this idea to do it with Zi-O and Re:Zero, slight pun there. And I decided to agree cause why not?

HackerEX: Yeah, I know that I am really overdue with updating my own stories but I decided why not and do a collab with a guy that technically inspired me to do stuff like this in the first place. Speaking of, this is also my first time working with something from Re:Zero since for the most part, I try to keep my wheelhouse in stuff like Kingdom Hearts or Precure.

Striberx: Same for me with Re:Zero. I did try to have an idea when Ex-Aid aired by using Brave? But the ideas came up short and I couldn't think of a way to make it work. And as for this? While I too usually keep to my ideas and have the riders work within the world of the series I cross over with, this was still an interesting idea to try out.

HackerEX: Yeah, for all intensive purposes, this is not the same world you know from the light novels or the anime. Speaking of, I am sadly an anime-only watcher as when I suggested this idea to striberx, I realized that I have never watched the show, only hearing about it from my brother who loved the series. So I decided to do what any sane man would do and binge the series on Netflix.

Striberx: I too am, anime-only viewing. But I do some research on certain I wanna know just so I can prepare myself but also know what I'm getting into. So I do now of certain things ahead of the anime, but not everything. Also, wanted to give a huge shout out to the author known as KamenRiderZiO, and their story of Zi-O x She-Ra. Part of the idea of Oma Zi-O existing within that world did come from them. I just tweaked a few other things just for this story only.

HackerEX: Also, big thanks for Striberx for agreeing to do this collab with me. Honestly this is an interesting experience having people help me with my stories, like with ghost83 helping me out with the new Edge of Time...which started in kind of a similar way to how this story came to be actually… Huh…

Striberx: As for me? It's a nice treat to be working with someone who I inspired to write. ^^ We'll try to do our best to make this story well, and fun. I will also do my stories too, but sometimes certain things come up, or certain mood occurs if I wanna continue one of mine for now or wait a bit and think things through. And with Season 2 of Re:Zero coming out this april? It's a good start for now.

HackerEX: I'll try to get some of my stories done too, I mean, you guys have been waiting for Movie War Carnival long enough so I might as well try to deliver. Speaking of, if you guys like this story then please say so in the reviews. If not, then feel free to throw your rotten tomatoes and we'll try to fix our mistakes for the next go-around…

Until then, later!


	2. Chapter 2: Enter the Geiz

Re: Zi-O/Shattering Time In Another World

* * *

Chapter 2: Heavenly Belief! Enter the Geiz!

* * *

_**WARNING: I own none of these characters sides from my OC(s). All rights go to their respective owners and properties. **_

_**This is nothing more than, well a fanfic, a story made up by a fan for entertainment and knowledge.**_

_**Everything in this fic is not canon and is only meant to give the audience a new idea of the works of each of the franchises in this story.**_

_**So please support me, my work and have some fun. Now enjoy the story. ^w^**_

* * *

_It was the middle of the night, the calm sounds came with it as throughout the kingdom, people either slept or were in taverns drinking their night away. But out past what appeared to be the slums, it was a much more different tale._

_It was far too quiet out there, not even the rustles of the rodents or residents made a sound. Yet in the far corner of the slums laid a shack, one that had a much more different presence as a shadowy figure walked out, a cloak covering their features, only as a faint shine of a dagger could be seen, one dripping with blood._

_And within the shack was a different sight, as corpses laid the room. One in the far back, seemed to be a large older man, his eyes gouged out as a broken glass jar hung from its neck, blood oozing out from the center._

_And to the side was a young girl, one that seemed to be a thief, slashed and cut to shreds as her stomach was sliced open as her entrails were on the ground. And in the center where the moonlight beams down into it, was Emilia, cut down and dead._

_But next to her was… someone else. Another young teen, but was different as well. He had a track suit on him, with black short hair as he hugged his stomach, trying to stay alive despite the blood loss and him losing strength as his body began to grow colder with each second._

"_D-Damn… it… I can't die here… again…. I need to save… Emilia-sama… If this power of mine… can do that! Then take me back… Take me back before this happens again…" The teen said in his last words, only for the color in his face and eyes dulled, as he dropped to the floor dead._

_An assassination occured during that night, one that now is changing the fate of this world once more. As next to the dead boy, laid a Ridewatch, one that was black with an orange dial, the face plate of it somewhat resembling a firefly, as it glowed next to the teen, only to fade from this failed timeline…. Following him back before this event occurred once more._

* * *

(Insert Opening - Oath Sign - AmaLee ver.)

* * *

**/PRELUDE/**

As the choir begins to sing, we see a shot of the castle where Oma Zi-O was killed. The camera pans slowly going through the ruins before reaching a clock that is forever pointed at 2 and 10. The title soon fades in afterwards.

**/Once again, **

**I reach my hand into a world, repeating on end/**

Jumping ahead, it soon shows Emila skipping around a field as Cody watches on. He soon looks at the Zi-O Ridewatch in his hand as he begins to remember his past life.

**/Though it's dark, **

**could my tears carve a path/**

As the young teen looks to his side, the camera pans to a bustling town, where Rex is leaning on a wall in a nearby alleyway. He soon gets up as he walks out, passing by a wandering Reinhard.

**/And lead me straight to your heart?/**

The screen immediately jumps to Subaru, looking around before several black hands begin to reach out

**/Like a rose that blooms and grows inside my chest, your name's all it knows**

**your name's all it knows/**

Jumping to a shot of a blank Ridewatch, Rem and Ram are teaching Cody something before jumping to Woz watching Subaru get kicked out of the library by Beatrice.

**/Is this fate, 'cause every day I pray**

**That right here by your side, I can stay/**

Next it jumps to Rex and Reinhard sparring with one another while the others watch on. As the two clashed weapons, we see a brief flash forward to an old knight and a young Rex

**/I'll gather these fallen flowers**

**The hope, discarded and broken/**

The next scene has Cody standing in the middle of a black void as he equips the Ziku-Driver and activates the Zi-O Ridewatch.

**/And I'll join them where they can meet/**

The scene switches to Rex seeing Cody from afar with the Zi-O Ridewatch, only to glare at him as he straps his on as well and activates the Geiz Ridewatch.

**/A wish, together I'll set them free/**

As Cody prepares to transform into Zi-O, projections of the various Heisei Riders appear around the boy as he prepares to battle.

**/Holding up the light within**

**And with no hesitation**

**To give you a future is all I've wanted/**

Once he spun his driver, a bright light quickly shined as we skipped to Zi-O and Geiz surrounded by several monsters and a few Another Riders. They soon gave a nod to each other as they took down anyone who got near them

**/Hold me tight through these dark endless nights**

**Screaming 'till the morning light/**

As the Riders fought, Subaru, Emilia, Rem and Ram were dealing with the issues of the Cults that plague the world, along with the faint shadow of Satella puppeting the timeline with her dark magic, causing several flashes of images of failed timelines, but thanks to Subaru, he slowly helps them to the right one.

**/All my broken-down ideals**

**I know one day they will heal/**

As Zi-O and Geiz continue to charge forth through the castle, they are met by Tid and Finis, who are holding the Another Kuuga and Another Zi-O Ridewatches as the shadowy images of the Another Riders stood with them.

**/With every step they will form the future**

**I'll hold tightly to this special bond that we share**

**I'll follow you anywhere/**

The rest soon arrive as the spirits of the various Heisei Riders stand by their side. With a jump, both Zi-O and Geiz fly forward and perform a Double Rider Kick as the world fades to white before fading to show what appears to be Cody standing alone on a hill.

**/Carrying onward, bearing this miracle/**

As Cody turns to where the sun rises, it's soon shown that the others were by his side with their shadows now resembling the Heisei Riders.

* * *

'_Grah, why now and why him!'_ Rex growled as he walked past his fellow guardsmen, who were checking on Princess Emilia and the recently-named Zi-O named Cody, '_Ugh, I just wish this was a nightmare and I wake up in some dirt pile after another fall…'_

"Is something wrong, sir?" One of the guards asked him, snapping the boy out of his thoughts. "You seem angered."

"Oh, uh...no, it's fine…" the young knight lied, "Just a bit roughed up that's all…" He soon gave his usual carefree shrug, which seemed to put the guard at ease as he dropped the issue, much to the boy's relief.

He soon breathed a big sigh as the guard left, '_Maybe I'm just overthinking things here…' _he noted as he entered the mansion, '_I mean, from what I can tell Cody's a swell guy but…'_

As he turned to a window in the hopes of clearing his mind, he saw Cody walk by. However for a moment, a flash appeared for a brief second and in that time, Cody was replaced by Oma Zi-O, only for things to turn normal.

Rex stepped back for a moment, almost in fear of the young boy he had just witnessed become the second coming of an ancient evil ages old. Immediately, his mind began to drift back into a dark memory of his past, one that he has desperately tried to bury...

_FLASHBACK_

"_Come on, we gotta go! Sir, they're gaining on us!" a young Rex, no older than ten, shouted as he tried to pull a much older knight with a full beard, who was bleeding in several places and missing an arm and foot._

_Flash forward to said knight giving Rex a black Ridewatch with a red dial and a face place resembling a car-based Rider, "Listen here kid, I need you to press the button and run! Run as fast as you can!" he instructed the boy_

"_But… I can't just leave you here..." the little boy protested before they spotted a group of black and gold cultists in the distance._

"_There they are! Seize them!" the supposed leader of the group shouted as they began to close in on the two._

"_It's alright, I'll be right behind you, now go!" the knight reassured him before the boy pressed the button on the watch._

_**DRIVE!**_

_Immediately, the world began to slow down as the boy ran away from the knight, but hid near a tree and deactivated the watch. He soon watched as the two exchanged some words he couldn't hear…_

_...right before he watched them kill the knight…_

"_Nooooo!" he cried out as he quickly shut his mouth and used the Drive Ridewatch to quickly run off before the cultists could get him too…_

_FLASHBACK ENDS_

"Hey Rex, are you feeling alright?" an unknown voice asked him suddenly, scaring the poor boy as he leaped back in fear. It was the red-haired maid from before.

"Oh, Ram… It's you. Whew, you scared me..." he said as he lowered his guard once more, "Yeah, I'm fine. No need to worry about it."

"Are you sure about that?" she asked him, not believing a word of what the young knight had told her, "You looked like you just saw a ghost…"

"It's fine, really…" Rex reassured her with a shrug and a smirk.

"If you say so." Ram shrugged, "Just remember to stick to your duties."

"I got it, I got it…" the young knight dismissively said before walking off. However as he did, Ram couldn't help but worry about the young boy.

'_Come on Rex, I know that you're upset about Cody…' s_he thought as she gripped her chest, '_I just wish you could stop hiding it and tell us…'_

XXX

_The next day..._

Cody was up and ready for the day as he got dressed. He was still surprised that they gave him a place to stay. Emilia truly was a saint, and he wants to try and repay that kindness she gave him upon coming to this world.

As he left his room, he soon noticed a strange sight in the window that overlooked the garden, it was Woz and Rex sparring with bo staves while Emilia watched on, cheering and judging the fight.

'_Huh, wonder what that could be?' _The newly christened Rider thought to himself as he began to walk outside.

"Remember to breathe, Rex." Woz reminded, as he blocked an oncoming strike before swiftly turning the staff and bonking the young knight on the head.

"I know what I'm doing Woz, cut me some slack!" Rex growled as he performed another strike, this time briefly spinning his staff before smacking the man on the side.

"You also should watch your temper." Woz said, before delivering several more bonks on the head with his staff. Rex tried his best to block these attacks, but the older man's speed and reflexes prevented him from even landing a proper counter attack.

Soon, Woz made the young knight fall on his back, pointing the tip of the staff against his neck, "If this was a real fight? You'd be dead. You need to learn more control." He warned.

"Yes sir…" Rex signed before Woz offered his hand to help him get up.

"I believe this is all for today." the man said, "Remember what you learned and try to improve."

"Yes sir" the young knight said with a salute before all three spotted Cody in the distance, waving to get the trio's attention.

"What are you all doing? Training?" He called out from where he was watching.

"Ah, good morning, Cody." Emilia smiled, warming the heart of the young boy.

"Waga Maou, yes, good morning." Woz greeted as he put away his staff and bowed before him.

"Yo…" Rex simply said, giving a small salute as he did so.

"Yes, I was teaching young Rex here some bo staff lessons. Would you like to learn as well, Waga Maou?" Woz offered.

"Sure! Might as well start learning now that I have this power." Cody agreed as he hopped out of the window. However as he did, his foot got caught in the frame and he began to fall into the flower pit below, earning a wince from the trio.

"I'm okay!" He responded before groaning a bit in pain.

"Ooohhh, that's gotta hurt…" Rex noted as Emilia rushed to his aid.

"Are you sure, you're okay?" The princess asked, helping him up.

"Yeah I'm fine." Cody reassured her, "I didn't even feel any pain."

"Interesting…" Woz noted as he scratched his chin. "So, since you want to learn, Waga Maou. What do you think you need to be taught?"

"Well, swordsmanship as well as archery would suffice. Gives me advantage with close and long range." Cody noted.

"Well we could ask Reinheard to mentor you, but I think he's busy right now…" Rex noted as he gave an indifferent shrug and eye roll.

"Who's that?" Cody questioned.

"He's a knight, just like me" the young knight explained, "The guy is a master of the sword, and the current Sword Saint. He's well respected across the kingdom as he comes by once and awhile to visit Emilia and myself."

"Wow, he must really be a great swordsman" the boy realized after hearing Rex's story about the man.

"One of the best out there." Emilia smiled softly, "You can literally consider him 'a knight in shining armor', so to speak."

"Basically what you were to Emilia…" Rex noted before grumbling under his breath, "Although that could be up for debate…"

"We can always try to find some way to get his swordsmanship to help you, Waga Maou." Woz said, "Though, with archery? I do believe I can assist in that regard."

"Hey, I never seen you with a bow at all Green Scarf" Rex noted as he tried to think back to any time he's seen him with one.

"Because you haven't earned the right to learn it from me, boy." Woz smirked softly in response, teasing the young knight.

Rex merely scoffed as he looked the other way before Emilia turned her attention to Cody.

"I do hope the accommodations are enough for you, Cody?" She questioned.

"The fact you're giving me a place to stay while helping me find a way home? It's more than enough, thank you Emilia." Cody smiled brightly at her.

The two briefly stared at each other before Woz began to chuckle. Rex on the other hand merely thought, '_Hoo boy, and so it begins…' _as he rolled his eyes over the sight.

"It seems that you've enchanted the princess, Waga Maoh." he noted, as this made the two react and blush softly from his comment.

"A-Anyways… let's get to archery, Woz." Cody requested, wanting to change the subject.

"Oh come on Cody, you sure you can't handle talking about your crush?" Rex said with a big grin on his face as he leaned his hands on his staff. It was clear to Cody that the young knight was going to enjoy teasing him.

"T-That's not important right now… I-If I need to be stronger to help protect Emilia, I need to learn as fast as possible…" Cody stated, a heavy blush on his cheeks as while he would love to chat with Emilia more, he did need to learn.

"Oh? So why are you stammering then? Surely there's something more to that. _Right?_" Rex pointed out as his grin widened, deciding to push the subject a bit further to see how the new Zi-O would respond.

"It's N-N-Nervous reactions, th-that's all…." the boy retorted as he looked away from his gaze.

"I don't buy it" the young knight disagreed as he shook his head, "After all, you're probably the first guy she's ever loved. Gotta milk this moment for all it's worth ya know?"

"R-R-REX!" Emilia cried out, embarrassed that the young knight would bring something like that up.

Rex soon laughed a bit as he saw the two were now beet red and extremely nervous to be near each other. Rex could tell that Cody was a good kid, but at the same time, he still couldn't separate the boy from the dictator that was Oma Zi-O.

"Oi. Stop teasing the two, dunderhead." Ram said, smacking his head hard from behind and snapping him out of his thoughts.

"Owww! Okay fine! I'll let up on the ribbing!" Rex said as he held his arms over his head to try and protect it from another smack from the maid.

"A-Anyways… let's get started Woz." Cody requested once more, trying to diffuse the embarrassing situation.

"As you wish, Waga Maoh" Woz answered as he briefly bowed before the boy, before he went to grab the equipment for the archery lessons.

After some minor setup, Cody began to pull the string back and readied his bow. The young man aimed as best he could, letting go of the string as the arrow flew from the bow towards where he aimed.

The arrow soon landed in the outermost circle, impressing both Rex and Woz.

"Well done, Cody!" Emilia clapped happily.

"Yosh! That was a piece of cake!" He smiled, looking at his work.

"Very well done, indeed, Waga Maou. But try a few more times. One shot can always be lucky on the first time around." Woz said.

"Not bad, Codes. Not bad…" Rex noted, "I can see that you've used a bow before?"

"Nope, first time with it." He admitted.

"Heh, well if you can keep firing shots like that, I think you'll be fine with archery…" Rex noted.

"Right." Cody nodded, "Woz? Mind setting up something more difficult?"

"As you wish, Waga Maou." Woz bowed before doing so.

As Woz began to set the target much further apart, Rex looked towards Cody once more, only for another flash to appear, as Oma Zi-O turned to him, chuckling evilly at the teen, only once more to vanish again.

The boy's hands began to quake for a moment, almost going for his axe when he snapped out of the trance. Rex quickly pulled his hand away from his hip and tried to play it off by searching his pockets for something else.

'_He's not the same… He's not the same…' _Rex repeated those words in his thoughts, trying to calm himself down but instead got angrier and angrier. '_He's not the reason why he-"_

"Rex?" Emilia asked, bringing the boy back to reality. "Oh, princess…" the young knight said, "I didn't know that you were there…"

"Is everything okay?" She asked, having a worried look.

"Yeah, it's all good!" Rex said as he tried to give a big smile, but the princess wasn't buying it. Cody on the other hand, began to wonder what happened to the boy.

'_I'll ask about it later. This seems too personal to ask him out front.' _Cody thought to himself as once more, he pulled back the bow and let the arrow fly once more.

This arrow however ended up missing it's target due to the lack of focus and fell to the ground, landing in between himself and the target.

"Waga Maou, just as I told Rex during our sparring session. Focus is more important than your personal thoughts." Woz reminded the boy. "Do it again."

Cody nodded as he readjusted his focus and fired another arrow, this time hitting a bit closer to the center. Woz nodded as Cody lowered his bow, happy that he was able to land a shot this time.

"Now normally, I would say for you to continue like before." Woz stated, "But…. I can tell upon focus, you can hit your target. Well done indeed, Waga Maou."

"Thanks Woz" he said before turning his attention back to what he saw. '_I wonder why he glared at me like that. Did I remind him of someone he hated?'_ the boy began to theorize.

"Well, I think today is good enough for me to treat you all to something in the city." Emilia smiled softly.

"Finally!" Rex sighed loudly, "At least it beats the usual morning routine…"

"Are you saying you detest our cooking?" Ram questioned with Rem standing next to her, the twin maids crossing their arms as they softly glare at Rex.

"N-No…" Rex said defensively, "I'm just saying that it gets kind of boring patrolling the mansion for several weeks straight!"

The twin maids continued to glare, not believing in his words. Something he knew that would end up with another smack soon.

Sure enough, when he put his arms over his head, he was able to block another strike from Ram. The boy sighed as he knew he saw that coming… right until Rem gave him a knuckle sandwich to the gut.

"Next time, we're doubling your vegetables to your dish." Ram said as the maids huffed and walked away.

"Oh come on! I'm not saying that your cooking is terrible!" Rex said as he ran towards the twins in hopes to avert what might be coming for him when dinner time rolls around.

"W-We should get going. They can talk about this while we're gone…" Emilia sweatdropped as Cody and Woz nodded in response.

"Sometimes I wonder if he can even taste anything with that foot in his mouth…" Woz sighed as he shook his head in disapproval.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Once within the city, Cody looked in awe at the architecture and more of this place as it was beautiful to see. Races of all kinds along with cultures clash well within this place as it showed so much uniqueness and diversity.

"Whew, crisis averted…" Rex said to himself as he sighed over how he had to convince the girls that he loved their cooking; mostly because he was a terrible cook himself...

"You know they're going to be still mad at you for a while now, right?" Puck reminded, floating around the group.

"Oh jeez, really? I didn't know that…" he sarcastically retorted before breathing a big sigh of disappointment.

"Maybe you can find something to give to them, and have a common ground enough for them to calm down?" Cody suggested. "I mean, you three do act like siblings, and sometimes doing something like that for them can help them relax and realize anything wrong they did or even you?"

"Mate, trust me when I say that you don't want to get either girl mad. Lest you want a mace to the skull…" Rex warned the boy as he winced at the times he was at the receiving end of that attack.

"Mace?" Cody muttered with confusion, not knowing it was a literal response.

"You don't want to even know…" Rex grimaced as they walked.

As the group continued onward, Rex's thoughts came back to that sneak attack from before, along with Cody's change. Though his mind was more onto that monster. Not only was it concerning as to how it found the estate, but why was it targeting Emilia? It certainly wasn't any Demon Beast as they would attack any of them regardless, yet it only seemed to target Emilia.

'_If only I could've found its body, I could've learned something useful…' _Rex pondered in thought about the monster. Yet any trace of it was gone, not even ash remained from the monster after its defeat against Cody.

"Something on your mind?" Cody questioned, butting into Rex's thoughts and snapping him out of his trance.

"Oh, nothing…" he told him, but it seems like even Cody didn't believe him. Thankfully, or unfortunately, their focus would be directed elsewhere… Namely the young knight's eyes spotting a person running on the rooftops.

While their face was hard to see from afar, their outfit clearly showed to be someone from the slums. A sleek and swift design with their blonde hair in a spiked ponytail as they seemed to be targeting someone… Someone that may be close to them.

"Uh oh…" Rex muttered as he readied his axe, the girl soon went straight for Emilia but was blocked by the knight's axe nearly clipping them. "Oh no you don't!" he growled.

"Che!" The girl scoffed, only for a gust of wind to pick up as in moments, she was now far behind them, running away.

"Stop right there!" Rex roared as he gave chase, leaving Cody alone with Emilia.

"Wait, why are you chasing her?" Cody questioned, confused for a moment only for Emilia to gasp.

"My Pendant!" She cried out, trying to pat herself down, hoping it was simply misplaced. Yet her fear was proven as she looked at him with her eyes, as he understood that it was stolen by that girl.

—

Meanwhile, Rex was trying his best to keep up with the thief, weaving through the crowd while keeping up the pace. "Hey, get back here!" he shouted as he slid under a man's cabbage cart.

"As if!" she shouted, swinging her dagger as a gust of wind flew out, only for Rex to dodge but the cart to get hit.

"My cabbages!" the man cried out. "Sorry!" Rex apologized as he grumbled to himself, "Fine, you want to play hardball? Then let's get in Top Gear!"

Grabbing a watch from his holder, the young knight then turned the dial and pressed the top button, activated it.

_**DRIVE!**_

A glow of red and white surged through the young knight as in moments, he sped up, swiftly approaching the girl as she looked in shock.

"Seriously?!" She gawked, using her gift to move fast, only appearing as a blur of wind. She smirked, knowing that nobody has been able to catch up to her with her gift in full use.

However, she was proven wrong as she felt something, or rather someone, tackle her to the ground. Turning her head, she sees the knight pinning her to the ground as she struggled against him.

"Let me go!" She demanded, growling as she tried to kick or bite the knight to get away. She was more shocked that he was able to catch her.

"Oh no, I ain't leaving until you give back what you stole!" he growled, panting for a moment as he kept a grip on his axe.

"I didn't steal anything!" She growled.

"Then why were you targeting my group?" he questioned her.

"I don't know what you're talking about! Now let me go, pervert!" She hissed in response.

She seemed genuine as he let her go, allowing the girl to breathe as she glared at the knight. "Ugh, this really ain't my day, is it?" he grumbled at himself.

"Yeah it isn't." She frowned, only to run off again.

As the boy started to leave, he soon noticed three thugs threatening someone. "Ugh, what now?" he groaned as he walked towards the scene. When he arrived, the young knight could only sigh as he shook his head in disapproval.

"You're gonna regret messing with us, punk!" One of the thugs said, as they began to kick and strike the downed civilian they were threatening. "Oi!" Rex called out, catching the attention of the three.

"Huh? What do you want? Beat it before we kill you too."

"Listen, I've been having a bad day. So could you please just leave the guy alone and mug some other poor sap?" the young knight asked in an annoyed manner.

"Oh? We're _sorry, _we'll behave once we toss you in the dump!" The large one threatened, pulling out a knife on him.

Rex rolled his eyes as he prepared his axe, "Guess we'll have to do this the hard way… Fine, I'm giving you up to the count of five to surrender!"

As the thugs laughed at him, the young knight pressed a button on his axe, activating the countdown.

_**TIME CHARGE!**_

"Eh?! What the hell is that?!" one of the thugs gasped in a mixture of shock and confusion.

_**5! 4! 3! 2! 1!**_

_**ZERO TIME!**_

With a swing of his axe, the knight struck and tossed the thugs into a nearby dump pile, covering them in filth as they groaned out, wanting to get out but weakened from the hit.

"I should have warned you.." Rex noted as he picked up the axe and pressed the button again to deactivate the charge. The young knight then glared as the three thugs, "Now, why don't you all just piss off or else I'll have to do something that would _really _risk my knighthood being revoked…"

The thugs cried out in terror as they got up, and ran off, knowing full well if they tried to continue, they either would be arrested or killed.

"Ugh, amatuers…" the young knight muttered before placing his axe into its holster. He then turned his attention towards the person he saved.

"A-Arigato…" The person responded, weakened and injured, but alive. Seems the boy also spoke that unique language that Cody did...

"Whatever…" the boy noted as he reached out his hand, "Come on, get up. There's better places to be than in the streets…"

"Itte…" The person flinched in pain as he stood up, "G-Gomen… didn't think… those guys were gonna hit me so badly…"

"Eh, that's what chumps like them do to anyone they find an easy target…" Rex noted as he folded his arms, "Now, what were _you _doing wandering around the alleyways like that?"

"I um… I got lost…?" He said, as he was trying to be genuine, but seems he was hiding something else as well.

Rex raised an eyebrow, "Alright. Just make sure to steer clear of this the next time around, okay?" The knight then gave a one finger salute as he left the person to find Cody and Emilia.

XXXXX

Cody was standing with Emilia near their hotel, awaiting for Rex as they hoped he caught the thief. The two were patient as they waited, while Cody looked to her, as Puck was comforting the half-elf.

"Guess that pendant was more than something personal?" He questioned, as he was still new to this world's rules and hierarchy, as he didn't understand, but could tell it was important.

"Yup" Puck answered as he floated towards the boy, "You see, that pendant is the sign that she's worthy of taking the throne. If she loses it…"

"Then she loses any chance to be part of the debate to gain the throne…" Cody added, understanding now as he frowned sadly and patted her back, "I'm sorry I didn't ask earlier about it… Let's hope Rex found it."

Sure enough, the two heard a knock on the door, as the young knight walked in.

"Rex!" Emilia smiled, feeling some relief.

"Did you get the thief?" Cody asked.

"Not really…" he grumbled.

"Huh? But you were chasing her!" Cody questioned in disbelief.

"Unfortunately she wasn't the one who stole it…" he said, "I think…"

"And… how did you figure that out?" Cody added on, a brow raised. "Please tell me you didn't fall for her innocent act of 'I didn't steal anything!'?"

The young knight was silent as he realized that he had been had, a horse neighing in the distance as the boy's right eye began to twitch. This angered him even more as he started to bang his head on the wall.

"You fell for it…" Cody sighed with disbelief.

"Grah! Why have I failed every task I've tried to fulfil!" he roared as he started shouting curses at himself.

"Hey, as long as you got a good look at her face, we can try to find some information. What was her features and personality like?" Cody asked, earning a confused look from the others, "What? I learned how to do stuff like that from my friends who were learning to be cops. They taught me some things that can be useful."

Sighing, Rex soon relayed what he learned about the girl...after Cody tore him away from the about to be dented wall.

"Look, you don't need to be so hard on yourself. It was a mistake, you can only improve from there." Cody tried to reassure, but the moment Rex looked at him, the young knight slapped the young man's hand away from him.

"Don't patronize me, maou" he growled before trudging off, "I'll find the thief myself, _without_ your help…"

"Rex…" Emilia frowned sadly at his departure.

"Okay… I know I shouldn't ask, but just what is his deal?" Cody asked, turning to the others, especially Woz since he seemed to know more about Rex than he does.

"Should I tell him or you should?" Puck asked Emilia, wondering if it was right to tell him.

"He should know… it's not right to keep anything secret when he's trying to help…" Emilia nodded.

"Alright…" Puck noted as he nodded in acknowledgement, "Let's hope we're doing the right thing…"

XXX

Rex was looking around, asking some people about the girl or any information on where she could be, only to either be denied anything or they couldn't help. '_This is so damn irritating! The first month on the job and I can barely do something simple as a freaking investigation.'_, he thought to himself, ' _Come on Rex, keep it together. This is your problem, and as a knight, you need to uphold your honor and fix it'_

He soon gave a big sigh, '_I just wish my master was still here, he'd know what to do…'_

As he walked through the streets, he soon bumped into someone. It was the same person he had saved before.

"Oh, it's you!" The person noted as he smiled, "Seems you're still on your duty."

"Pretty much…" he grumbled, "Say, have you seen this girl? She's about yea big, slim figure, blonde hair?"

"Huh? Oh yeah, she fled past me before you came along and took care of those thugs." He nodded.

"You're kidding me?!" the knight gasped, "Where did she go?"

"Er…. that's what I've been looking into…" He admitted, "So far, there seems to be multiple slums…. So it may take a bit to find out which slum she lives in?"

"You gotta be kidding me…" Rex sighed as he slumped down, "Ugh, as if this day didn't get any worse…"

"Well, how about I help you? It's the least I can do for you, for saving me." He offered.

"Well thanks, Mr…" Rex said as he realized that neither man introduced themselves.

"Subaru." He introduced himself.

"Yeah, thanks Subaru…" he noted with a nod, "Anyways, the name's Rex."

"Thank you, Rex-san." Subaru bowed politely.

Soon the two began their investigation, talking to some of the townsfolk for any clues as to where the thief was. Some didn't know or care to tell them, while others seemed to have info, but were unwilling to listen to anything they said, making the search difficult.

"Ugh, no dice…" Rex sighed as the two came to another dead end in their search, "Seriously, how the hell do you lose someone that fast!"

"Tell me about it…" Subaru sighed, "We can only keep trying, Rex-san. Maybe if we get a higher point, we can find some place that stands out to us?"

Rex soon began to look around for a way for them to get to a higher spot, "How about that tower over there?"

"Let's go! Hopefully we can find something and that will be the right place to look?" the teen nodded as he made his way there.

"H-Hey, wait!" Rex shouted as he ran after him.

XXX

"...And that's the gist of it…" Puck said as he and Emilia finished their story.

"I…. had no idea…. I didn't know he had such a rough upbringing." Cody gave his sympathy towards Rex's past that he was informed about. '_To think he lost everything to Oma Zi-O, no wonder he's seemed pissed at me!'_

"Yeah, it's honestly a miracle that he didn't try to kill you on the spot…" Emilia sighed.

"At least he has some resilience to hold back." Puck shrugged.

"But still, I'm sure that he knows I'm not Oma Zi-O, right?" Cody asked the two with concern.

"I'm sure he does. But with your power? It's hard not to see him thinking that you could become a new Oma Zi-O." Emilia noted, "That's at least why he hasn't attacked you yet, he does know but sometimes he can't help himself from seeing that monster from your armor."

Cody was left to contemplate for a moment or two before getting up, "I gotta go find him…"

"Wait what?!" Puck gasped.

"I want to show to him that he doesn't need to worry. I won't become that tyrant, and I'll prove it." Cody stated before smiling, "'Sides, he needs more friends, doesn't he?"

Emilia soon smiled, "Alright, I'm in!"

Cody beamed a smile at her, as he looked over the area, before seeing what looks to be a very rundown area of the city, "Hm? Think that could be the place the thief went?" He questioned as the others nodded.

XXX

"You sure this is the place?" Rex asked Subaru as they arrived around the same time as Cody discovered the town.

"Positive. Anyway, I know a slum where I see one. This has to be the place the thief lives." Subaru nodded.

'_Ugh, I'm gonna regret this…'_ he thought as they began to look around the slum for any signs of the thief.

"Um…. this way! I think..?" Subaru said, pointing to the east way of the slums.

The two soon reached a rickety old house as dusk began to fall on the slum. It was hard to see if this was even the place, as it looked like any other rundown house they saw along the way.

"Okay… let's see if it's okay this time…" Subaru muttered as he knocked on the door.

As they entered the house, they were soon met by a large man and the same thief from before.

"Yoooouuu…." Rex growled as he glared at the girl, who quickly recognized the knight.

"Wah! How did you find me?!" The girl gasped in shock.

"That doesn't matter now, your mine…" he growled before quickly grabbing the Drive Ridewatch and preparing to activate it.

"Woah, woah, easy!" Subaru said, stopping Rex from attacking, "We're all not enemies, right?"

"Well it doesn't seem that this kid's itching for a fight…" the man noted as he began to return the glare.

"Hey! Let's just talk this out. I'm sure we can solve this situation!" Subaru hastily said, '_Crap, this is bad… if these two fight now, she might be in even more danger than before!'_

"Alright, spill it! Where's the Pendant you stole!" the young knight shouted at the thief.

"Hmph, if you must know. We're having an auction for it. If you don't want trouble, kid. Then penny up." the large old man stated, "Otherwise, get out."

As tensions continued to rise, he soon came to a realization as he went in between Rex and the old man.

"Well, then how about _I _join in the auction?" Subaru declared.

"Eh?" the young knight bluntly said as he gave him a face that said, 'Are you kidding me?'

"Just let me do this. I have a few things that can turn this event all around." He whispered.

"Well I hope you know what you're doing here…" he whispered back as he placed the Ridewatch back onto his holder.

"Anyways! I am here to auction for that Pendant." Subaru announced once more, "I'm sure we can come to an agreement, right?"

The old man and the thief soon looked towards each other before returning their gaze towards this strange boy. "Alright, what do you have in exchange for that?"

"Well, besides these things…" He said, holding up the back as he pulled out some unknown snacks and such within, along with something akin to the FaizPhone.

"Huh, what kind of FaizPhone do you have there?" Rex asked the boy, but Subaru didn't hear his question.

"Behold! With a flash of light, I can stall time!" Subaru said, as a soon small flash came from the odd device, only for him to turn it around as it showed the three within the screen of the device.

"Woah, so this is like a special model of the FaizPhone" the thief noted with a bit of glee.

"Hehe, more like the only one of its kind. It also can spawn music within." He said, as he pressed a few things as it does such a thing, playing a techno song for the three to listen to.

"And where's the gun?" the man asked as he looked at the object.

"No gun, it's an all purpose, personal item. Doesn't need a gun to function." Subaru waved off, '_What does he mean where's the gun?' _He questioned in his thoughts.

The man soon began to examine the mysterious snack before opening it up and taking a handful. "Oh! What an interesting flavor! I could get addicted!" He said, chowing down on the snacks.

Feeling a bit curious, Rex stepped forward and took from the bag. His face soon lit up as he ate the snack, "Hey, this is pretty good!" he realized.

"Hehe, so? Would all of these suffice as the right trade for the pendant?" Subaru smirked proudly.

"Probably, we'll have to wait for our client before making a final decision…" the man noted.

"Huh? There's another?" Subaru questioned, a bit shocked to hear there was another one taking the auction, as he thought this would win him it in a landslide.

Soon, they heard the door open as a woman walked into the place. She wore a black outfit with purple trimmings, as it slightly exposed her chest and stomach, while she had leggings beneath and a cloak on top with purple fur on the neck of the cloak. She had long black hair with it curled into a ponytail that draped over her shoulder, and a purple flower on her head.

As she entered the room, Rex felt a sense of dread and despair emanating from Subaru. He could see his eyes were showing some kind of fear in him.

"Ho? Seems I'm not alone here…" The woman noted, seeing the two newcomers in the building.

"Umm, can I help you miss…" Rex said as he questioned the woman, but hovered his hand to where his axe was in case she was a threat.

"Yes, I'm here for the auction." she responded calmly.

"This here is the one who requested the auction." The little thief said, "Hence why it was such a trouble to get."

"Yeah, trouble…" Rex grumbled as he shot a glare at the thief.

"So, I'm guessing that you two are here for the auction as well?" she asked the two as the young knight poked his elbow into Subaru's side, snapping him out of his fear.

"Oh! Uh, yeah! Yeah we are." He quickly said as he began to hastily nod.

"Let's hope you brought something good, young lady. This young man brought something that could rival something priceless." The old man stated.

"Pst, Rex…" Subaru whispered to Rex, catching the boy's attention as they allowed the two to talk.

"H-Huh?" He looked to the knight.

"Get ready, we might have a fight on our hands…" he relayed to the boy.

"What? Why?" the young knight asked in a confused manner.

Subaru was soon proven right as the woman began to break out a wild smile, and the wicked aura soon intensified, as everyone soon felt it.

"Well then… good thing it's just us out here. This means I can make sure nobody notices four corpses in this place while I leave with that pendant." She said, maliciously.

"I'm pretty sure the only one who's taking an early grave, is you!" Rex said before quickly disappearing in a burst of red light. The woman looked around for a moment before feeling someone kick them in the head.

As the woman flew into a nearby table, Subaru saw that the mysterious force that kicked the woman was in fact, Rex, now with the Drive watch activated on his wrist as he gripped his axe tight.

"Hehehe…. That hurt." The woman said, as she gained a sadistic grin on her face, "Seems I might have some actual fun here." She said before drawing out a knife in hand, one that can easily be told what she is as a small scent of dried blood came from it. She wasn't just some person, she was an assassin.

Soon the fight began, Rex lunged at the woman with his axe, yet the woman easily dodged and kicked him to the side, showing how experienced she was. She walked over to him, her wicked smile on her face as she swung her blade. Rex blocked, yet instead of a clash, he felt a sharp slice on his arm as he noticed blood from it.

"Sorry to tell you, boy. But your defense won't work well on me." she said, "I should give you my name then. My name is Elsa Granhiert, I'm also referred to as 'The Bowel Hunter'." She introduced herself.

"Charming…" Rex noted, "At least I know the name I'll be asking to put on your tombstone."

"I see that you hold one of the 20 Ridewatches…" she noted as she recognized one of the watches on his arms, "It's a miracle to hold one of these rare treasures… I think I'll take them from your corpse."

"Ha! Like that will happen!" the young knight shouted as he charged forward. Subaru couldn't help but notice how fast Rex had become. '_Did he become that fast from that watch alone?' _he thought before realizing what the woman had just said, "Wait a minute, Ridewatch?!" he gasped.

Elsa grinned with each clash, enjoying any time she either delivered a blow or was dealt a blow. She was enjoying every pain she gained as she returned it in fold. She was a sadist, and was willing to show it as she seemed to be just playing with him rather than actually taking it serious.

Subaru couldn't just watch as he grabbed a nearby club and rushed at her. This made them see his actions as Rex was about to rush over to help, but surprisingly, upon Elsa swinging her knife, he dodged it right where the actual slash would be before he smacked her upside the head.

"Amazing, to think that little trinket of yours grants this much speed…" she noted with a wicked grin.

"You idiot, why would you come at her, like that?" Rex frowned at the teen.

"I can't just sit there and let her wear you out. I have to do something." Subaru said, "Sides, with your speed and my uh… my instincts, we can take her down!"

"Ugh, well then if you get yourself killed, just walk it off…" Rex noted as the two stared down the assassin.

"Now this is a fight!" Elsa grinned deviously as she started to duel with them, blocking and attacking when she needed to, as she started to get more serious with her skills.

Meanwhile Rex and Subaru were starting to feel fatigued from fighting this long. "How much stamina does she have?" the young knight grumbled as Elsa smirked at the two.

"I have been doing this a long time. Of course I'd have more stamina." She responded, "Now… who to kill first?" She said, pointing her knife as she soon rushed towards… the little thief?!

"Crap!" Subaru cursed as he pushed her out of the way, only for Elsa to kick him into the empty barrels nearby, as they collapsed on top of the teen.

"Kid!" Rex gasped as he zipped towards the barrels and brought him back onto his feet.

"You should pay attention to yourself." Elsa said, slashing his back.

He soon smashed right into the barrels, leaving him a crumpled mess, but still alive. As the boy began to get up, he soon watched as Elsa fought against the older man.

'_No, I can't let anyone else die…_' he thought, '_I'm not letting another person die while I have the power to do something… I won't, I won't stand for thi_s!' Soon got up as he fired off an arrow to the woman's ankle, unaware that something on his arm was beginning to glow.

"Hm? Well, it seems you still want a turn. Alright, I'll make this the last thing you see." Elsa smirked as she started to walk to him. "Though, I must say. You truly are pathetic if you think this is going to change anything. Heh, no wonder you're nothing but disappointment. After all, how could a supposed knight be this pathetic, or perhaps I should say squire. You're not fit for such a title."

"No, I won't give up… " the young knight growled, as he struggled to get to his feet "I may have failed once before, but I'll do whatever I can to defend this world! Even if it kills me!"

"Say… is your arm glowing?" They questioned, pointing to the young knight.

As he looked, he soon noticed the other Ridewatch he had was starting to glow.

_**THE FUTURE RIDER WHO FIGHTS WITH RIDEWATCHES IS...**_

Immediately the Ridewatch glowed and transformed into a red Ridewatch with a black dial, one that was very different from either the Zi-O and Drive Ridewatches, a corresponding black button, and the faceplate, while using the unique language it came from, was designed differently, along with what looked to be a clock face and hands on the forehead.

_**GEIZ!**_

'_Eh? This looks kind of Japanese, but it looks much more...weird…'_ he noted as both Subaru and Elsa were surprised by this new device.

"Hm? So it seems to have activated itself… Well, more of a reason to kill you and take it." Elsa stated to him.

"Yeah, not gonna happen. Not this time!" Rex said, a massive grin forming on his face as he turned the dial before pressing the button.

_**GEIZ!**_

In moments, a red energy flew out of it as it wrapped around the teen, forming the Ziku Driver on his waist, ready to be used. At once he slid the Ridewatch into the left slot before unhooking it, causing it to slant much like Cody's Driver did as an ominous ticking noise could be heard. Yet behind him wasn't the same as his, as it looked more like the time he saw on Subaru's item, as it slowly spun around him as the 'time' on it showed several numbers.

He soon jutted his arms out, before slowly crossing them together as he grabbed the two sides.

"Henshin!"

At once, he quickly spun the driver as he stretched his arms out to the side. While the clock behind him spun before stopping and revealing the hirigana letters that were on the watch, only for red, black and gold rings to form and spin around him as the characters flew out of the clock.

_**RIDER TIME! **_

_**KAMEN RI~DER! GEIZ!**_

The rings soon shattered away, revealing a sleek red and gold armor with the same watch theme as Zi-O, as the letters soon collapsed on top of the face plate, finishing the armor as they shined softly for a moment as steam came out of the helmet from the completion.

"I don't believe it… I never thought I would see the day where I would see the heavenly hero born anew!" the older man gasped, as he was left in awe by the transformation, "It's a miracle!"

Elsa though did show signs of shock upon seeing this. She knew of the legend, but she didn't expect he was the successor to it.

"No… another child of the heavenly bloodline, I thought they were wiped out many years ago!" she shouted with a slight tinge of horror in her voice.

Meanwhile, Subaru was still amazed by what he saw. '_No way, Kamen Rider Geiz? Here in real life?!'_ he thought, '_I thought he was just a TV show character!'_

"Too bad. As you can see, I'm not dead…" Rex, now Kamen Rider Geiz, cockily stated as he briefly raised his arms before putting them down.

"Tell me, who are you?!" she demanded from the young knight.

"I'll tell you then…" the boy noted, "My name is Rex Gallus, the last of the Wells Clan and descendant of the heavenly hero, Geiz Revive!"

"D-Don't think you can be cocky because you gained this armor!" She growled, lunging and slashing him, as sparks flew off from the attack, yet he didn't flinch from it. The red clock Rider merely shook his head as he punted the woman away.

Elsa crashed through the wall of the shack, only for her to crawl out in moments, while not minding the pain she was in complete shock from that. She needed to kill these people and take that pendant before anything else can occur. She had no choice but to use all of her skills and powers to do it.

As Elsa started to struggle with Rex's change, she had to adapt, as upon swinging her knife once, a soft white slash came to the other side of the knight, striking him. As it was soon shown that she had two knives, one white and one black. "To think… you drove me into such a corner that I have to use both of my weapons…" she said with annoyance.

"Well, prepare to be annoyed even more!" Rex cheered as he activated the Drive Ridewatch.

_**DRIVE!**_

Once he slotted it in, Rex quickly spun the driver, as behind him what looked to be, pieces of armor appeared from a projection of a tire, as it made a leaning pose behind him.

_**ARMOR TIME! **_

_**DRIVE! **_

_**DRI~VE!**_

The armor soon rushed at Rex, only to disassemble and reform onto him as new hirigana letters were placed onto the helmet. It was similar to Rex's Geiz armor, but red and white, as two large tires were strapped onto his shoulders and Shift Braces on his forearms, while the helmet looked to have a spoiler of a race car on it.

"Woah! So Drive was what made him that fast?!" Subaru gasped in amazement, "This is like Zi-O IRL!"

"Alright, time to get into Top Gear!" Rex declared as he briefly leaned on his left leg.

"Don't get cocky with me!" She growled in anger, as she went for a dual slash, yet a red blur was all that she hit as she was confused as to where her target was, not knowing he was already behind her.

He soon fired off one of his arm blasters, sending a projection of a large red car into her back and sending her flying. Once she tried to get up, the young knight quickly performed a baseball slide that had sparks flying through the skies, toppling the woman before performing a German suplex on her that embedded her body into the floor.

She laid there in the suplex hole, flinching in pain from it, as she couldn't believe that she was overpowered this fast. She knew if she faced one of the actual higher knight classes, she would be in trouble. But some weird boy and barely a knight in training was able to beat her? And this so-called knight was the descendant of the heavenly hero _he _was searching for? No… she can't accept that.

Rex soon dusted off his hands as they noticed some activity near the door. Thinking it's another enemy, Rex aimed his bow at the door. "Alright, whoever's there you might as well give up! I've already taken down your accomplice" he declared, "Now, show yourself!"

But upon opening the door, the ones who walked in were just Cody, already in his Zi-O armor, and Emilia behind him, both confused, until they saw the signs of a fight left behind by the older man, Elsa, Subaru, and Rex.

"Rex? Is that you?" Emilia questioned with surprise.

"Lady Emilia!" Rex quickly said as he lost his initial fighting instinct and bowed before the princess, "I d-didn't know you would come here!"

"We came because Cody pointed out this area from afar, we only hurried when we heard the noise of fighting emit from it." She informed the young knight.

"Oh, uh I'm sorry for making you two worry about me…" he said as he got back up to his feet.

"Glad to know you're okay." Cody sighed with relief, as he powered down and pocketed his items. "Though, didn't know you could change into that."

"Yeah, it's the heavenly hero reborn in the new age!" the thief said to the two, "It was awesome!"

'Wait, this American-looking guy is Zi-O?' Subaru mentally noted as he looked at Cody, curious about who this strange person was.

"Hm?" Cody turned to the other teen, seeing him, "Eh? I didn't know someone from Japan got here too."

"Wait, you know about Japan?!" Subaru gasped in surprise.

"Yeah, I am from America." He informed the young man, speaking in Japanese fluently to the teen.

"I… I can't believe it, looks like I'm not the only one Isekai'd into this world…" he noted

"Do you know of him, Cody?" Emilia asked, walking over to the teen.

"Not really, but from the looks of his outfit. He seems like he comes from my world" Cody answered.

"Eh? H-How do you know Emilia-sama?!" Subaru gawked.

"Hm? You know of me?" she asked, tilting her head in confusion.

Subaru soon shut his mouth as Elsa started to stir in the hole. Only to break out and land near the hole in the wall, only to growl upon seeing the others.

"Great… and here I am, as if I needed more trouble… Especially with the target I was told to rob…" She hissed, glaring at Emilia.

"Oh right! Speaking of that…" Rex noted as he turned towards the girl, "Hand it over…"

"If I knew we were going to be killed, I would've returned it easily." The thief huffed, handing it over to him.

"Thank you" he said as he walked towards Emilia, "Here you go. It might have taken a long while, but I got it back..."

"I suggest you both just lay down and die!" Elsa said as she rushed to them, but before she could someone else came crashing through the ceiling, blocking her blade. It was a man with red hair in a similar knight uniform as Rex.

"Sir Reinhard!" Rex cheered as he saw his senior in knighthood.

"Heh, I figured it was you I sensed, Rex." Reinhard smirked softly.

"Well I didn't expect to see you show up here!" the young knight noted as the elder of the two stared at his armor.

"It seems like you unlocked your birthright as the heavenly hero…" he happily noted as he looked at Emilia, "You have one hell of a knight, princess.."

"Great… and just when I thought my troubles couldn't get worse…" Elsa glared at the official knight.

"Don't worry. For now, just let me deal with this trouble maker." Reinhard offered.

"Got it" Rex noted as he de-morphed, until he grasped his back in pain as the adrenaline wore off on him.

"Are you alright?" Emilia asked, as she noticed the blood as she frowned and began to use some magic to heal his wounds.

"Y-Yeah, I had to take a hit for Subaru…" he groaned as he smirked at the kid, "If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't have found the pendant to begin with."

"You idiot… I thought I told you to be careful?" She frowned. "Rem and Ram are going to have to hear about this when we get back."

"Heh, since when did I listen to orders?" he playfully said before wincing in pain again.

"So, to think the dreaded Bowel Hunter would dare appear here? You sure were a pain to find last time." Reinhard noted.

"Well it seems that it took the right catalyst…" she growled as she glared at Rex and Subaru.

"How about I make this quick?" Reinhard noted as he took out… another Ridewatch?! This one was similar to the Drive and Zi-O Ridewatch with an orange base and a navy blue dial and button. He then turned the dial to reveal an orange-themed samurai

_**GAIM!**_

"Eh?! He has one too?!" Subaru gasped.

Soon, he placed the watch into his sword, causing it to be charged up with orange energy. Elsa was shocked as well that he too would have a watch, but she couldn't react in time as he swung his blade downward, striking her as she was soon cut down from the attack, only for the woman to immediately drop dead.

"T-That was scary…" Cody noted from how large the slash attack was, as it left the rest of the shack and the fields behind it in a crater.

"Hey Sir Reinhard, you might have not charged up your sword with both the watch, and your magic…" Rex noted as he looked at the state of the shack.

"It's okay. I can help rebuild what I just struck down." He reassured, before pocketing the watch and sheathing the sword.

"So wait, Rex has Geiz and Drive, you have Gaim, and that Cody kid is Zi-O…" Subaru noted as he counted the watches he's seen in this world.

"So, before I head out, Lady Emilia. I do believe this thief needs to come with me." Reinhard said, picking her up by her collar.

"H-Hey, let me go!" she protested.

"Sorry, but stealing from royalty is a crime. And as a knight, I must…" Reinhard began to trail off, only to see a necklace around the thief's neck, as he gripped it and looked at it, only for his eyes to widen, "Miss… is this pendant yours?"

"Y-yeah, why?" she asked him, confused by the knight's question.

Reinhard soon smiles, "Seems there is much more to discuss than I thought, please come with me to my castle." He offered, now carrying her like a princess.

The girl soon blushed as Emilia breathed a sigh at the sight, "Wow, a lot has happened today… First my pendant was stolen, then we find another person from Cody's world, then I find out that Rex is the last of Geiz Revive's bloodline."

"Guess for now, we can only head back to the estate." Cody shrugged, knowing today was rough on them all.

"Agreed, honestly I can't wait to return to my bed…" Rex agreed before yawning loudly, "Today was exhausting…"

"Um… Emilia-sama? Are you sure you don't remember me?" Subaru asked.

Sadly the girl shook her head, "No, I'm sorry…" she answered.

"But… you saved me…" He responded tearfully.

"Maybe it was a past life or something…" Rex noted, "I mean, you seemed to know what you were doing when you pointed out this slump"

"Um uh…. Just coincidence?" Subaru shrugged with a kind of doubtful voice.

Cody pondered for a moment before smiling, "Say, if he doesn't have a way home either, why can't he stay at the estate too?" He offered, as the group turned to him.

"Yeah, at this point, we might as well take in anyone who's from another world…" Rex jokingly answered, with a laugh "But still, I don't mind having Subaru around…"

"R-Really? You don't mind?" Subaru asked.

"Dude, you helped me out in getting the pendant back. Think of his as making us even" he noted as he gave the kid a pat on the shoulder.

"Heh.. thank you." Subaru smiled, nodding in agreement.

"No prob" the young knight said as he placed his hands in his pockets. Cody and Emilla were relieved, it seemed that he was back to his old self. But that does bring the question...

"Who exactly is this Geiz Revive?"

"He… he was the hero who took down Oma Zi-O. The one who saved our world from his rule." Rex informed the group, "Some people tend to call their children Rex in hopes that they could be the next heavenly hero. I'm no different honestly, as my family has had the blood of the hero for years..."

"So you're just a line of names trying to be the next hero? Thats… That's sad." Subaru said with sympathy, "But that's odd, isn't Oma Zi-O supposed to be like, super OP or something?"

"He was basically considered a demon lord… But it seems he was only able to bring fear to gain that power instead of actually having it." Emilia stated.

"Well the name was mostly done to bring good luck to the child, but yeah, my family has always been looked at to bring forth the new Geiz Revive…" the young knight sighed as he ignored Subaru's question, "At least… they used to…"

"Well, now you can relax and uphold your legacy." Cody said, trying to lighten the mood of the place.

"Heh, I'll try, but..." Rex noted before his face hardened, "This does mean that we're enemies now…"

"Huh?" Cody looked at him confused, "What do you mean by that?"

"It's pretty much inevitable at this point." the young knight stated, "You're the successor to Oma Zi-O, I'm the descendant of Geiz Revive. There's only one way this will end, with us battling to the end…"

"Rex…" Emilia frowned sadly, "I do hope it doesn't come to that…"

Subaru finally was just floored, '_Uh oh… I have to do something. If not, then Cody and Rex will follow the same road as Sougo and Geiz…'_ The young man soon tightened his grip, '_So, I'm guessing this is why I was summoned to this world…'_

As the other teen watched the two, he grasped his head as a vision came to him. One that could very well pass, as it showed the new Zi-O and the new Geiz fighting against one another to the death. Fire and corpses laid waste around them as they seemed to be fighting until they both killed each other in battle. This was a possible future, one that could come to pass.

'_No, I won't let that happen!'_ Subaru noted, '_If I can, I'll do my best to prevent a world-ending war to come here!'_ He remained silent as he looked at the descendants of the demon king and the heavenly hero stood off against each other.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

HackerEX: Okay pal, are you sure this portal system will work? I don't want to get infected while crossing dimensions...

Striberx: Oh it'll be fine. I only lost 50 people beforehand.

HackerEX: That is not comforting to say the least!

Striberx: It's fine, they all came out together…. literally.

HackerEX: Okay, now I'm even more terrified to try this out! Oh, we're live… Uhh… hey guys, Hacker and Striber here...

Striberx: Sorry for the hiatus again. Sides the whole virus thing going on, work has been still hecktic cause of panic buyers and such. Plus I wanted some time to myself as I beat Persona 5 Royal.

HackeEX: Same, at least it'll allow us to bide the time after that delay for Re: Zero season 2. Plus, it finally allowed me to update Edge of Time after several months of just revisions...which I'm still doing… Well live and learn I guess...

Striberx: Plus for me, sides what I just said before, I've been kinda rethinking on many things on how to approach my stories. May not be much shown, but I am always working on my writing skills.

HackerEX: Same, so onto the chapter itself. Now it looks like we got a lot more about Rex this time around, after getting almost nothing about him the last time.

Striberx: Along with more of a reason as to why he must fight Cody because of him being Zi-O. The chap may be a bit short, but we are trying many things after all.

HackerEX: Pretty much, and I can tell that some of you guys are looking at the fact that Rex Wells from EoT is a thing in this world of Re: Zero. While I can't spoil a lot, what I can say is that this Rex Wells might not be the one you're seeing in my stories so far.

Striberx: Now, as for Subaru. We did have to keep him into the story, cause he's the only one with the reset power, and as shown its very useful to have. Thus we will keep some of the deaths and traumatic events in, not all but the ones that do matter.

HackerEX: Not to mention we decided to bring in the whole 'Geiz Revive is the savior' thing from Zi-O's canon, with some elements of Link from Legend of Zelda and the Hero from Dragon Quest, Dragon Quest V to be specific since I had just watched Your Story a week ago, so that way it would allow both Cody and Rex Gallus to be parallels to each other, and serve as a nod to Zi-O too.

Striberx: Also, not all Another Riders will appear. As shown by Gaim and Drive's Ridewatches being used, not all of them will appear. But some shall for certain events.

HackerEX: Now when it comes to something like GeizMajesty, or Woz, I can confirm that we are at least considering the former, since the latter is pretty much a guarantee for this story.

Striberx: But we will have to see how things turn out, along with how season 2 of Re:Zero goes. Cause some of us can only watch the anime due to not being able to read or find the manga or light novel near them or even online due to living conditions.

HackerEX: Pretty much, even so, I do hope that this chapter makes up for the last one… Anyway, be sure to fave and follow this story, and send us a review. It helps us grow as writers.

Until next time, later minna!


	3. Chapter 3: Hope of Wizard

Re: Zi-O/Shattering Time In Another World

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Chapter 3: Another Chance - Hope of Wizard

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_**WARNING: I own none of these characters sides from my OC(s). All rights go to their respective owners and properties. **_

_**This is nothing more than, well a fanfic, a story made up by a fan for entertainment and knowledge.**_

_**Everything in this fic is not canon and is only meant to give the audience a new idea of the works of each of the franchises in this story.**_

_**So please support me, my work and have some fun. Now enjoy the story. ^w^**_

* * *

_As Subaru lays on the ground, bleeding out, he pants heavily as he sees that magic wielding monster hold up Emilia, only for a loud snap to occur before it dropped the princess. Nearby, Rem and Ram were dealing with Zi-O and Geiz, the two onis under the monster's control as they swiftly struck the rider's belts, depowering them before crushing their skulls with their weapons._

_The monster cackled happily at the end of this potential threat to the kingdom as it began to walk away, Subaru only looking onward as his vision started to go black. Only for moments him gasping in air, once again in his bed as he held himself gently._

"_D-Damn it… again? Why can't I figure out who is going to kill Emilia-sama?" Subaru groaned with annoyance, as this wasn't the first time since this happened as he was still stuck with figuring out this mystery. If he didn't figure it out, this loop of death on Emilia would continue._

"_Yo! Subaru, you okay there?" Rex called out from the other side of the door._

"_Y-Yeah… just another nightmare is all." He responded, covering himself over his secret as one time he did reveal it, it killed him and reset him once more. Thus he had to keep it secret until he can figure out the reason for this odd power._

_As he fixed his jacket, he began to remember what the creature looked like. "This is bad, if we can't find the Wizard Ridewatch before Another Wizard strikes again, then we're screwed…" he muttered under his breath, "But where is it?"_

_He soon left the room, unaware there was a Ridewatch left behind on his bedside, the same orange and black Ridewatch that had been following him ever since he arrived to this world..._

* * *

(Insert Opening - Oath Sign - AmaLee ver.)

* * *

**/PRELUDE/**

As the choir begins to sing, we see a shot of the castle where Oma Zi-O was killed. The camera pans slowly going through the ruins before reaching a clock that is forever pointed at 2 and 10. The title soon fades in afterwards.

**/Once again, **

**I reach my hand into a world, repeating on end/**

Jumping ahead, it soon shows Emila skipping around a field as Cody watches on. He soon looks at the Zi-O Ridewatch in his hand as he begins to remember his past life.

**/Though it's dark, **

**could my tears carve a path/**

As the young teen looks to his side, the camera pans to a bustling town, where Rex is leaning on a wall in a nearby alleyway. He soon gets up as he walks out, passing by a wandering Reinhard.

**/And lead me straight to your heart?/**

The screen immediately jumps to Subaru, looking around before several black hands begin to reach out

**/Like a rose that blooms and grows inside my chest, your name's all it knows**

**your name's all it knows/**

Jumping to a shot of a blank Ridewatch, Rem and Ram are teaching Cody something before jumping to Woz watching Subaru get kicked out of the library by Beatrice.

**/Is this fate, 'cause every day I pray**

**That right here by your side, I can stay/**

Next it jumps to Rex and Reinhard sparring with one another while the others watch on. As the two clashed weapons, we see a brief flash forward to an old knight and a young Rex

**/I'll gather these fallen flowers**

**The hope, discarded and broken/**

The next scene has Cody standing in the middle of a black void as he equips the Ziku-Driver and activates the Zi-O Ridewatch.

**/And I'll join them where they can meet/**

The scene switches to Rex seeing Cody from afar with the Zi-O Ridewatch, only to glare at him as he straps his on as well and activates the Geiz Ridewatch.

**/A wish, together I'll set them free/**

As Cody prepares to transform into Zi-O, projections of the various Heisei Riders appear around the boy as he prepares to battle.

**/Holding up the light within**

**And with no hesitation**

**To give you a future is all I've wanted/**

Once he spun his driver, a bright light quickly shined as we skipped to Zi-O and Geiz surrounded by several monsters and a few Another Riders. They soon gave a nod to each other as they took down anyone who got near them

**/Hold me tight through these dark endless nights**

**Screaming 'till the morning light/**

As the Riders fought, Subaru, Emilia, Rem and Ram were dealing with the issues of the Cults that plague the world, along with the faint shadow of Satella puppeting the timeline with her dark magic, causing several flashes of images of failed timelines, but thanks to Subaru, he slowly helps them to the right one.

**/All my broken-down ideals**

**I know one day they will heal/**

As Zi-O and Geiz continue to charge forth through the castle, they are met by Tid and Finis, who are holding the Another Kuuga and Another Zi-O Ridewatches as the shadowy images of the Another Riders stood with them.

**/With every step they will form the future**

**I'll hold tightly to this special bond that we share**

**I'll follow you anywhere/**

The rest soon arrive as the spirits of the various Heisei Riders stand by their side. With a jump, both Zi-O and Geiz fly forward and perform a Double Rider Kick as the world fades to white before fading to show what appears to be Cody standing alone on a hill.

**/Carrying onward, bearing this miracle/**

As Cody turns to where the sun rises, it's soon shown that the others were by his side with their shadows now resembling the Heisei Riders.

* * *

Cody marked off his calendar in the room he was given to by Emilia and Rosswall, as he sighed softly but with a small smile on his face. It has now been an entire month since his arrival to this world, and while he was still confused on this matter, he also hasn't felt more alive in years, committing that he would remain here. An idea that he had no reason to think of but recently he has been enjoying this new life and with not much to return to in his world, it would be better for him to remain.

The young blonde looked to his bedside to find a desk and several books and papers, as thanks to Emilia he was slowly learning this world's language to help him be better acquainted than simply leaving it to her to translate whatever he finds. The maids help out here and there, but they don't seem much interested in him yet or trustworthy, even Beatrice keeps shocking him out of her library.

However, that paled in comparison to the glares that he had been getting from Rex during that time. Ever since learning about the battle between Oma Zi-O and Geiz Revive, he wanted to try and show the young knight that he was nothing like his predecessor. In some ways, he was right, but there was still the lingering fear that one day, he would become just like Oma Zi-O, if not an even more powerful version of him.

That fear was always building in his thoughts, but he did what he could to push those back and prove himself, even if that only led to a scowl or smack to the face from Rex. He had to keep trying, cause by giving up, he would admit to becoming the new Oma Zi-O and make it rougher for not only Rex and the People of this world, but Emilia too.

"Enough, Aldrich, enough." Cody said to himself, smacking his cheeks and leaving red marks from it. He snapped out of that stupor as he headed out of his room to continue on with the day, once finding Emilia as usual, he knew breakfast and tasks come next with it as he looked forward to the new day.

* * *

Meanwhile, Rex was practicing with his axe, striking at a training dummy that had a crude looking goblin face drawn onto it.

"Your swings are too wide…" Woz told him, "You're giving your opponent several chances to break your attack and strike you down…"

The young knight nodded as he lessened the swings of his strikes, satisfying the advisor as he watched him improve in his combat skills, something he had been constantly doing whenever he had free time. After he had obtained the power of Geiz, Rex had begun training none-stop to improve himself. He also began to grow a bit colder towards Cody, likely due to the reminder that he was Oma Zi-O.

However despite a few scuffles here and there, the two merely acted like rivals rather than bitter enemies. Something Rex wanted to change, as he had lost all trust in the young man. Only visions of Oma Zi-O appearing in front of Cody were on his mind, he knew that the Day of Oma, the day the tyrant rose to power, was coming and he would have to be the one to prevent it from happening.

"GRRAAAHHH!" Rex howled, cutting through the dummy like an axe to a piece of wood.

Panting heavily from the routine, he growled with annoyance as he knew that the first thing to obtain would have to be a Ridewatch of a Heisei Rider, one of the many powers Oma Zi-O held that came from the various heroes from Subaru's world. He already had the Drive Ridewatch so he was already on his way to keeping the watches out of Cody's hands…

"Excellent…" Woz praised him as the young knight calmed down, "I can see that your form has improved greatly, but if you could even think you can withstand the power of Waga Maou, you need to learn more than just basic axe swings and axe throws…"

"Che, are you really accepting him as that? You plan on betraying us too?" Rex glared at Woz, angered by him even stating that word.

"Such anger, Rex. I only state that of my interest in seeing him grow. I don't believe I could betray what hasn't even happened yet." Woz noted to him. "Although, you have certainly changed from the very lazy knight you were a month ago… He always seemed happier than the so-called 'next heavenly hero'..."

Rex soon began to calm himself down, he let his anger cloud his judgement again. "Yeah, your right…" he admitted as he put his axe back into its holster, "Guess I just have a lot on my mind recently…"

"Might I suggest taking a break from training?" the scholar suggested, "It would help to give your muscles a rest and not overwork them to the point of exhaustion…"

The rookie knight chuckled, "Hey, since when were you my advisor?" He soon gave a smile not unlike the one he had before becoming Geiz.

"Since I started to train you, young knight." Woz chuckled.

"Yeah yeah…" Rex noted as he began to stretch. "Welp, looks like it's almost breakfast time…" he noted as he looked at the internal clock on his FaizPhone X, a watch-phone hybrid, "We better get back to the mansion before Ram complains that I forgot to have breakfast _again…_"

"Hehe, indeed. Let us go." Woz nodded as the two ventured back to the mansion.

* * *

Meanwhile in the mansion, Subaru was snooping around the area, looking for any sign of the Wizard Ridewatch. From the previous deaths that he had experienced, he was definitely sure that the monster that was about to attack the estate was Another Wizard. So naturally he needed to find the monster's one weakness as soon as possible.

As he began looking through the hallway, the displaced young man accidentally bumped into someone.

"Oh, Master Subaru. You best know not to be lost in thoughts when roaming the halls." Standing there was Butler Forbee, a servant to the Rosswall Estate for a few years. The butler, while in that attire, had glasses on and a comb over hairstyle as he fixed his tie before checking on his pocket watch, "Miss Emilia has been expect you and the others at the dining hall for the past 20 minutes."

"Alright then, I'll be right over!" he said as he quickly ran to the dining hall, but not before catching the butler staring at him while he was making his way through the halls.

And within the dining hall, Emilia, Cody, Rex and the others were already starting their breakfast together, as Emilia smiled and gestured him over to eat.

As they ate, Subaru began to look towards Cody and Rex, the latter of which was wolfing down his food. '_I can't believe that these two are actually Kamen Riders. Let alone them being Zi-O and Geiz…_' he thought, '_I kind of wonder if I can become a Rider too?'_ He held onto that thought before mentally laughing it off, '_Yeah right. I've been lucky so far, but I'm not holding my breath on finding some kind of random Driver or Ridewatch to give me an awesome power…'_

"Got something on your mind, Subaru?" Emilia asked him, snapping the young man back to reality as he turned towards her.

"H-Huh? Oh! Hehe, nothing really on my mind, Emilia-sama. Just been thinking that me having a free pass here… is kind of a disservice to the kindness you all gave me." He said to them.

"Well that makes two of us" Cody agreed after putting down his meal.

"Don't say such things you two. You both have done a lot for me lately." Emilia reassured.

"Hey, can we not have any flirting at the dinner table Zi-O?" Rex complained as he briefly stopped eating, "I'd rather not lose my appetite…"

"I-I'm not flirting!" Cody cried comically.

"Yeah yeah, keep telling yourself that…" the young knight sighed, shaking his head as he did so.

***SMACK***

"Stop teasing." Ram interjected as she smacked Rex's head, right into his meal. The young knight soon raised his head with food in his face, causing some of the people at the table to laugh while he wipes his face and continues eating.

After the laughter died down, Subaru looked down before he stood up, "Um… Emilia-sama? Roswell-sama? I… I want to do more than simply stay here as some free guest. Can… Can I do something more to show my appreciation?" He requested.

"You mean you wanna work here?" the young knight correctly guessed after finishing his meal.

"Yeah, like maybe like you, Rex-san as a knight?" He said.

"While, there is an opening to be Emilia's personal knight. But I'm afraid you will need more requirements than simply have saved her." Roswell informed, making the teen slump, "But… maybe if you work as a member of our staff here, you _could _work up to it?"

"Really?!" Subara asked excitedly. "I'll do it!"

"Then after lunch, Ram and Rem can show you to your new attire." Roswell agreed.

Rex merely gave him a nod of approval while Cody looked like he was about to join in and request, only for Roswell to raise his hand and shake his head in denial.

"While you would like that too Sir Cody. Lady Emilia has requested not to give such treatment to you. Not only did you save her life from that monster attack, but also an assaination too. She rather have you as a friend and comrade than simple help." He informed the young man as he looked to her a bit surprised by how much she sees in him.

"Basically, she li-" Rex was about to say, only to notice the death glare the princess was giving him, "-ikes to keep you in check, you are in danger of being Oma Zi-O after all!" he quickly corrected himself before giving a nervous smile that made Emilia give a satisfied smile towards.

"That's what I thought you said…" she said in a 'I thought so' kind of tone.

"O-Oh… well… if she wishes that, I don't think I can deny it from her." Cody responded as he nodded, "Thank you. I'll do what I can to still show my appreciation here and there, Emilia-hime."

Subaru couldn't help but smile at the trio's interaction. "Wow, you three really are close friends…" he chuckled.

"I'm not his friend." Rex frowned, looking away in an indifferent huff.

"Rex, don't be like that… You were doing well with Cody before this… whole thing started." Emilia reminded the knight.

Cody could only smirk softly as he coughed out "_Tsundere" _in response with a chuckle, only to receive a smack to the head from the young knight.

"I heard that…" Rex growled.

"Eh? You know what that means?" Cody gawked.

"Blame Subaru for constantly calling me that…" the young knight grumbled before giving a glare to the aforementioned young man.

"Seriously dude? That's like… our new secret language here! You can't spoil things like that!" Cody pouted comically, as he was eager to talk in Japanese like that in front of others should he need to be. Subaru merely shrugged.

"He just wanted to know what tsundere meant…" he answered plainly, causing Cody to comedically fall to the floor.

"You could've lied!" He cried out, knowing that he can't trust Subaru with any intel again.

"Hey, when you have an angry knight breathing down your neck, I'd rather avoid losing my head over something like a secret!" Subaru said in his defense, "Don't worry though, I'll try and keep mum about anything else you tell me. okay?"

Cody accepted this as he sighed and got back to his feet.

"Oh that reminds me." Emilia said as she looked to the boys, "The town nearby our Estate is holding a festival. They do this every year and invite us since we do help protect their town from any troubles."

"Sweet, when's the festival starting?" Rex asked as he put his arms over his head in a lazy manner.

"In about a week. I was hoping our two new guests would like to join in the festival?" Emilia asked with a sweet smile.

"Miss Emilia, you should know about the upcoming meeting we have next month at the capitol. You don't have time for such things." Forbee said, trying to deny her the festival.

"Come on, Forbee. It's not like it's gonna harm anything if we go." Cody reminded the butler.

"Maybe you're saying that because you'd want some alone time" Rex grumbled, "I'm not letting that by for two reasons. One, it's dangerous for it to just be you two given what happened last time, and two, I'm not letting you swoon the princess to become your queen, Zi-O"

"R-Rex!" Emilia gawked as she blushed heavily along with the young man.

The twin maids sighed as they walked over, before smacking his head as they picked him up and began to take him away.

"Grounded." They said in unison.

Cody could only shake his head as he muttered, "The usual Gallus motto stands true. When in doubt: open mouth, insert foot…"

"Uhh you sure that's necessary?" Subaru asked the two. '_Dangit, we can't go to the festival with one Rider down! We need both Zi-O and Geiz to fight this guy!'_ he frantically thought.

"Do you wish to take his place, then?" Rem asked, glaring at him.

Subaru quickly yelped, straightening himself as he tried to think up a solution, "W-Well, maybe you two could come with us…" he hesitantly suggested, "Y-You know, to make sure he doesn't mess up during the festival…"

"That does sound reasonable…." Ram noted.

"Yeah, plus you two haven't been out of the house in weeks so…" Subaru muttered as he looked away in a faux embarrassed manner.

"Why do you care?" Rem questioned, confused as to why he would want them to go as well.

"Maybe he just wants all of us to enjoy the festival together?" Cody guessed, giving Subaru the excuse he needed.

"Y-Yeah! Sides, everyone deserves some kind of entertainment in their lives!" Subaru nodded in response.

The twins looked at each other at first before turning around and dropping the dazed knight. "Fine, we'll come along…" Rem answered, allowing the young man to breathe a sigh of relief.

Ram on the other hand has her hand on his collar, "I'll make sure you don't cause more trouble."

"Y-Y-Yes ma'am…" he quickly agreed as she dropped him.

"Good boy."

"Ugh… do we really need to have this? It's important Miss Emilia gets the meeting." Forbee sighed in detest.

"Come on Forbee, we've all been working pretty hard the past month…" Emilia sighed, "We can focus on the meeting afterwards."

The butler merely frowned as he scoffed and marched off, seemingly annoyed by this as he left the room. This made some of the others feel a bit upset by his departure.

"My, Forbee truly seems to be upset by this." Woz noted as he walked towards the group.

"Yeah…" Subaru noted as he stared at the butler. '_Something's off about him…'_ he thought, '_I thought for sure he'd want to go as well… It happened before, so why not now?'_

* * *

As the next day came through, Cody was on his way to see Emilia. He had an idea that she could try should she ever need some relief from any stress or problems that may have built up. He started to notice this last week when her usual duties left her to eat in her room. He knew very well how much it can be harmful to keep things bottled up, so he figured this idea he got would help with her mood.

"Okay, you got this…" he told himself as he walked up to the door to her room. He gulped as he felt his heart beating a bit faster, unsure why he was nervous about this as his body followed up and knocked on the door, "Um… Emilia? You there?"

With a bit of hesitation, he gently opened the door, finding the room empty as he was a bit confused and walked in further.

"Emilia? Are you here?" He called out, his voice a bit louder now as he started to be concerned over her absence.

He soon began to look around for the room for her. After a while, he couldn't find her anywhere in the room. Sighing, Cody was about to give up, only to notice something on her desk.

It was a Ridewatch, one with a black base and a gray dial and button. When Cody picked it up, he noticed that it was dated 2012 and had the image of a red gem-like helmet, most likely complete upon turning it. He didn't know why, but it seemed to draw to him as his hand slowly reached out to the watch.

"Cody?" Emilia called out to him, snapping the young man out of the trance as he turned to find her… in a towel…

"Uhh… I can explain?" he hesitantly said as both he and the princess began to blush heavily.

"KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! GET OUT! GET OUT! GET OUT!"

* * *

That was the noise that woke up a sleeping Rex, who was bored out of his mind while standing guard to the point he fell asleep at the door he was watching over.

"Wait, who what now?" the young knight blubbered as he quickly got to his feet and looked around. '_Wait, that sounded like the princess…'_ he realized as the young knight calmed down for a moment to think.

Soon, the sound of tossed books and more were heard as one seemed to have crashed through the window and landed on Rex's head hard, making him shiver in pain from the blow.

"Ow!" he shouted as he covered his head before picking up one of the fallen books. "The hell?" he said as he quickly went inside to check on the princess.

Meanwhile, Subaru was equally confused by the sound but had a sliver of fear in his heart. '_Crap, Another Wizard's striking already?!'_ he feared, '_Why is he attacking now of all days?!'_

The two teens met up as they looked concerned at each other as they ran down the hallway.

"Why are you running?" Rex asked Subaru.

"Why? The Another Rider is here to take Emilia!" Subaru responded, earning a confused look from the knight.

"How the hell do you know that?!" the rookie knight demanded from him.

Subaru looked like he was about to explain, only to groan as he held his chest, "Um… I… have started to gain… Future Vision!" He informed Rex as he tried to think of a good lie.

"Guess that explains what happened a week ago…" the young knight noted, buying Subaru's excuse.

With no time to lose, they both scrambled towards Emilia's room.

"Zi-O, I SWEAR IF THIS IS ALL YOUR DOING!" the young knight roared in annoyance as they arrived, ready to fight Another Wizard, but instead….

"I-It was an accident, I swear!" Cody pleaded, as Rem and Ram were there, having the young man in chains. Immediately both teens dropped their guard as they looked at the red-faced boy with a look of absolute bewilderment.

"What happened here?" they asked in unison.

"Pervert tried to sneak a look on Emilia." Rem frowned.

"I said it was an accident and I didn't mean to!" He pleaded out once more.

Rex and Subaru soon looked at each other before turning towards the comically crying Cody. Realizing it was more of a misunderstanding, the young knight slapped his face to his palm before breathing a large sigh of annoyance.

"You gotta be kidding me…" he groaned before raising his hands in the air and walked away, "I'm done, I'm fucking done…"

"H-Hey! You're not gonna leave me here like this, right?!" Cody questioned the young knight.

"Call me when the princess is actually in danger, not when someone wants to go all touchy-feely…" he stated firmly as he walked away.

"Hey! Please you gotta believe me!" Cody cried out, but it fell on deaf ears. Desperate, he turned to Subaru for sympathy, but he was too busy staring at the Wizard Ridewatch in the boy's hands.

"Hey, where did you find that?" he asked, bringing the twins' attention to the object in Cody's hand.

"That item... belongs to Emilia." Rem responded before yanking it away from him.

"So he's a thief to boot" Ram noted as she glared at the still terrified Cody.

Before they could do anything else, they soon spotted an equally embarrassed Emilia walk out of her room, her face still beet red from the previous encounter.

"Emilia-sama. Do you know anything about that watch?" Subaru asked, pointing to it in Rem's hand.

"It was a gift to me from my father" she explained to the two, "He told me to hold on to it and it will protect me from danger…"

"I… didn't know it was that important to you, Emilia." Cody said with a soft tone, realizing it was more than just a watch.

"Do you want him in the dungeon or buried, Emilia?" Ram asked, skipping anything and straight to the punishment, much to his dismay.

"W-Wait! There's no need for that kind of violence!" the princess worriedly asked the maids.

"But he's a pervert and thief." Rem added.

"Yeah, but he's done a heck of a lot of good for the princess!" Subaru said in his defense.

"It was an accident…" Cody wept softly at the insults.

"Come on guys, can't we just let him off the hook for this?" the young man pleaded before thinking to himself '_Man, I've had to play devil's advocate twice this week… Then again Cody is kind of on route to become a Demon King…'_

"I-It was indeed an accident." Emilia responded finally, "I just panicked because I didn't expect him to be here…" She soon turned towards the young man, whose eyes were now beginning to shine with hope "I-I'm sorry for putting you through this…" the princess apologized.

"Finally! Justice!" Cody weeped with glee as the truth was revealed.

Rem and Ram looked at one another before turning back to Emilia as they nodded and finally let Cody free from his shackles, the young man finally free from the restraints and problems that were caused.

"Freedom…" Cody said with a heavy relieved sigh.

"I'm very sorry for overreacting, Cody." Emilia apologized once more, only for Cody to shake his head.

"I was at fault for not knocking in the first place, Emilia. You were right to react like that." He reassured, as the two smiled softly at one another, both having cheeks show a soft red tint.

"Whew, glad it was a false alarm…" Subaru breathed a sigh of relief for a moment before he realized two things.

One, Cody somehow found the Wizard Ridewatch, and two, they might not have that much time left before the festival and the confrontation of Another Wizard. Even more so, how should Subaru even explain to them about the oncoming attack or anything else.

'_Wait…'_ Subaru noted, '_Maybe I can use the Watch to stop it? I mean… I know that upon using it, it either gives the user the armor or the rider powers. Maybe I can gain the latter?'_ He pondered in his thoughts.

However, he soon shook off those thoughts. '_I'd rather not get into the crosshairs of Ram and Rem… or Rex for that matter…'_ He shivered at the thought of all three coming at him with the intention to kill. But then, an idea came to his mind.

"Say, Emilia-sama?" He called to her, earning her attention, "Is there any possible way I could learn magic?" He offered.

"Why do you ask?" the princess pondered.

"W-Well, I just figured it would be smart for me to learn it! Just in case I come across some troubles on my own when doing some tasks?" He stated, trying to use this to learn so he could defend the others upon Another Wizard's attack.

"Fair enough, he is the only one around here without a way to defend himself…" Cody realized.

Emilia pondered before she smiled and nodded, "Alright, I think I can do that. What do you say, Puck?" She asked her familiar.

"Sure! Sides, I could use someone to mess with." Puck chuckled out.

"Gee, glad to be of service…" Subaru said in a tone not too dissimilar to the young knight.

* * *

Emilia soon led Subaru to the training field in the backyards of the estate, with Cody in tow as he was curious to watch.

"Alright, let Teacher Puck start this off." The cat familiar smirked softly.

They soon heard a loud snoring as the group found an exhausted Rex asleep under a tree, with various broken training dummies before him.

"Seems someone is tired." Subaru noted as he heard him snore loudly.

"He does train very often." Emilia smiled.

"Okay! To start off, Subaru. There are four elements anyone can learn. Fire, Water, Wind, and Earth." Puck informed, "As you saw with Emilia several weeks ago, she has an affinity for Water, and thanks to her heritage, she's able to turn that into ice."

"Huh, well what about Woz and Rex?" Cody pondered, "I mean, the latter of the two probably has some special power he inherited from his bloodline or something right?"

"Their both affinities are mostly towards Wind." Puck responded.

"Guess that explains how he's able to throw around his axe all willy-nilly…" the boy noted as he remembered his various axe throws.

"Mhm! You're correct! Now… let's see…" Puck glanced at Subaru, glaring softly into his affinity, "Ho~? This is a bit of a surprise."

"Hm? What is it? Am I Fire? Earth?" the young boy asked excitedly.

"Shadow, actually." Puck responded.

"Shadow? I thought there were only four, like you said." Cody chimed in.

"True, but there are two more elements that are very rare to have, only 1% have it, and those are Shadow and Light." Puck answered.

"So what… I can like make shadowy weapons or something?" Subaru questioned.

"More like… you can blind enemies, make them stumble and more." This caused Subaru to gasp comedically

"Oh so, Subaru has Debuffs?" Cody chimed, not helping the boy's self-esteem that much.

'_That's so lame!' _Subaru cried out in his thoughts.

"Makes sense. After all, he did come from Japan. Meaning he could have techniques similar to a ninja." Cody added on.

"Huh, well when you put it that way…" Subaru noted

"Since we now know your affinity, let's try simple tasks, such as using your magic through your own gate." Puck said to the teen.

"Wait me, a Gate?" Subaru asked, pointing at himself.

"Hm? What's wrong?" Emilia asked.

"I mean, I don't even know if I am a Gate or not…" he admitted.

"I don't know what you're getting at. Gate's are just ways to access magic." Puck informed, confused by the teens, worry.

"O-OH! I see. Sorry about that, hearing about 'Gates' just reminded me of some old sayings in my homeland." Subaru chuckled out, changing the subject as he started to realize that those terms weren't the same. "So.. like I just try to focus on my gate to use my magic?"

"Correct! Try to imagine… like water coming out of a pipe or river. And as you keep practicing, you can control how much magic is flowing out of your gate so you don't overexert yourself." Puck informed the teen, as Subaru nodded.

"Right, like a river…" Subaru nodded as he closed his eyes and envisioned a closed river, only to slowly see a peak of light as he envisioned he was running closer to it, as the light began to grow wider and wider until...

"Hm? Wait… with this gate size it might-"

Soon, the entire area they were in was covered in black smoke, blinding their sight and hearing in a dark fog.

* * *

'_What's going on? Is something like this supposed to happen?'_ Cody gasped as he tried to find a way to lift the fog. The young teen tried to swipe to make a draft, but the dark fog didn't even move, he couldn't even hear his own voice as everything was silent in the fog.

'This really sucks! I can't even call for help!" Cody groaned out, as he looked at his hand, or whatever he could feel, as he was holding the Zi-O Ridewatch, pondering that maybe his power could lift this fog away?

* * *

Back with Subaru...

'_Gah! I can't see!'_ Subaru cried in his thoughts as he tried to call out his friends only for no sound to be send out. '_I can't call for help! Damn it Puck, you didn't tell me how to close my gate!'_

"KYAAH!"

Emilia's voice cried out once more from deep within the fog, earning the attention of the group this time.

"Grah, what the hell is this?" Rex growled, as he tried to look for the source of that cry, "Was that you princess?" Yet there was no response, earning a worried feeling from the knight and others.

"Let's break this fog, Rex!" Cody cried out on his end, clicking his watch as the two others see Zi-O's watch light up in the dark fog.

"Alright, I'll try!" he said before seeing that Geiz's watch was lighting up as well before the two swiftly gained their armors.

_**KAMEN RIDER! ZI-O!/GEIZ!**_

As the ring of the Rider occurred and gave them their armor, upon breaking to reveal it, it had enough power to take out the dark fog in the area, revealing the light and sound once more.

"Ah, I can see…" Subaru cried with relief.

But as the other senses come back, they see near the border, Another Wizard holding up a struggling Emilia as she seemed to be encased in magic.

"Emila!" Zi-O gasped, reaching out to the princess.

"Let her down monster!" Geiz growled as he took out his axe.

"_Che, the fog had to be gone. I don't have time for this."_ Another Wizard growled, tossing several rocks to them, only for them to grow and soon gain forms that were grey with orange veins and horns.

"Ghouls!" Subaru realized.

"Hey, give me that real quick!" Zi-O stated, gripping on the Drive Ridewatch that was on Geiz's forearm, trying to pry it off of him to use.

"H-Hey, knock it off!" he growled, "You're gonna break the watch!" He soon pushed him off before unhooking the Drive watch from it's holder properly.

_**DRIVE!**_

"You guys deal with these things! I'm after that jerk!" Zi-O said, placing the watch on the slot, as he unhooked his driver and spun it.

_**ARMOR TIME! DRIVE! DR~IVE!**_

"You better not break that…" Geiz growled before Woz walked past him.

"Iwae! As another time passes, My Maou has gained another power! For this is Kamen Rider Zi-O: DriveArmor! He shall break the speed and go full throttle!" Woz cheered with glee.

"Do you really have time for that?!" Geiz growled with annoyance.

"Hey, there's always room for a little speech or two" Cody stated, "Let's just hope this works though…" After taking a runner's position, Zi-O dashed as hard as he could in Another Wizard's direction.

* * *

Within the forest, Another Wizard was using wind magic to gain ground, as Emilia continued to try and break out as shards of ice were building up in the magical cage.

"Why are you doing this?" She questioned the monstrous mage.

"_To simply erase you." _It responded, "_And with this? Another rival to the throne will be gone."_

She was confused as to why this random monster wanted the throne that badly as to kidnap her and distract Zi-O and Geiz.

"EMILIA!" Cody's voice rang out, as the two heard him as it seemed he was getting closer to the two.

"_WHAT?! How is he getting this close already?!" _Another Wizard gritted before noticing a red blur coming closer and closer towards him, "_Lousy brat…. Let's see how you deal with stronger gravity?" _The monstrous mage said, placing his ringed hand on the boned belt.

_**GraVIty**_

Soon, Zi-O felt a surge of weight on him as he slowly started to get slower, knowing that it was the monsters doing.

"Not… gonna… happen…" He groaned, raising his arms before sending out several Shift Cars from his forearm. The little toy cars were speedy as they rushed towards Another Wizard, surrounding and striking him to cause some damage.

This caused him to drop the barrier that held Emila, causing her to plummet to her doom had it not been for Zi-O breaking free from the spell and catching the princess.

"You okay, Emilia?" He asked, hoping she wasn't hurt from his actions.

"I'm fine, Cody. Thank you." She said with some relief as he sat her down.

"_Grah! Damn you brat!"_ Another Wizard roared as he flew right towards him in rage.

"This time, I won't let you escape!" Zi-O said, using Drive's speed to race around and strike the Another Rider. Zi-O then began to deliver several rapid fire punches and kicks onto the magical Another Rider, each one knocking him around until he was sent flying into several trees.

Another Wizard, groaned before growling, only to use the gravity spell once again, but this time a lot more intense as it caused the young man to kneel from the weight. He then scanned the ring once more to create a new spell.

_**HuRRIcAnE**_

This caused a huge tornado to appear and send Zi-O crashing through most of the forest before he was sent rocketing towards Another Wizard, who used this time to activate another another spell.

_**BiND**_

Suddenly, several large tree roots grabbed each of his limbs and stretched them out, allowing Another Wizard to calmly take both the Zi-O and Drive Ridewatches away from Cody. The reverted young man, groaned more as without the armor, he was nothing but a man as the weight of the gravity and roots began to take a toll on his body.

"G-Give… those… back…" Cody gritted, trying to reach out to them.

"_I don't think so…"_ he muttered before preparing an ice shard to stab through the youth's heart.

"I won't let you do that!" Emilia stated, as she shot some shards at the mage, to stop him.

This however annoyed Another Wizard as he melted the ice with his flames, though some did reach the roots that held Cody's arms, allowing him to take back the Zi-O Ridewatch at the least.

"_Gah! This was meant to be easy for me! But you both are trouble. My client only said to bring you to them, never specified being alive…."_ The corrupted mage growled, as it spawned a sword made of bone.

"No matter what you try to do, I'll keep Emilia safe. She has become my hope and I've become her's to help reach her to that throne. Your magic may be powerful and corrupt, but I won't give up on Emilia's. I will become her hope and future!" Cody announced, even though he felt cheesy by saying that.

All of a sudden, the Wizard Ridewatch soon glowed before flying towards him, freeing the boy from the rest of his bindings.

"_And what is that going to do for you?" _Another Wizard scoffed as he looked at the watch.

"Simple, to take you down!" Cody declared before activating both watches.

_**ZI-O!**_

_**WIZARD!**_

He slotted in the watches before unhooking it. While the clock of Zi-O appeared behind him once more, the Wizard Magic Seal appeared before him as he did his pose, as the roots tried to attack but to no avail.

"Henshin!" He called out, spinning the driver.

_**RIDER TIME! **_

_**KAMEN RIDER~! ZI-O!**_

As the armor of Zi-O came onto him, the seal descended upon top of him. As his helmet gained the Wizard black cowl, the seal turned physical as it broke apart, creating mage caped wings as the chest piece formed not only the ruby armor of Wizard, but also a mix of the Flame Dragon Style, chest before finally the katakana for Wizard collapsed on top of the rider's helmet.

_**ARMOR TIME! **_

_**PLEASE! **_

_**WI~ZARD~!**_

"Saa, showtime daa." Zi-O announced as he lifted up his left hand, like Wizard does.

"Once more, Iwae! The Rider who will stand over the past and future as the King of Time has arrived! And his name is Kamen Rider Zi-O: WizardArmor!" Woz declared, appearing by Zi-O's side, scaring the poor boy.

"How in the-? How did you get here, Woz?" Zi-O questioned, looking around with confusion.

"Waga Maou, whenever a new chapter is added, I shall be here." He smirked softly before bowing, "Now, if I recall… This mage has a princess to defend?" He questioned the young man.

"Oh right!" Zi-O realized before regaining his composure.

Another Wizard was angered by this joking around as he casted another spell to send shards of ice and stone at the armored Rider. Thinking fast, Zi-O used a wind spell to redirect the projectiles right back at Another Wizard.

_'He casted magic with a simple wave of his hand?! No! I won't allow this!'_ Another Wizard hissed in anger, spewing fire and lava instead.

However Zi-O instead created his own wave of ice and snow to hit the wave of heat, causing a huge cloud of mist to envelop the forest.

_"Where are you, you commoner?"_ Another Wizard glared, looking through the fog.

He then felt something strike him, but when the Another Rider turned around, there was nothing there. He kept his guard up as this repeated several times before he felt a hand touch him.

"I'll be taking this back!" Zi-O declared as he retrieved the Drive watch before tossing it… to an arriving Geiz aboard a motorcycle.

_"What the?!"_ Another Wizard gasped before he was run down by the red clock Rider until he disappeared into the fog, leaving the Another Rider on his own again. _"I'm getting real tired of this!"_ The corrupted mage howled.

After getting no answer, Another Wizard spawning a gust of wind to remove the fog, only to soon find several 'clones' of Zi-O around him.

_"Another parlor trick?"_ he growled as he tried his best to find the real Zi-O, yet the clones soon began to fire rounds of the Zikan Grade at the mage.

"Trick? Sorry pal, but unlike you, these clones are just as real as me!" The Zi-O's all said at the same time.

Enraged, Another Wizard began throwing fireballs randomly at all the Zi-Os, making each one disappear after the other. Yet with each one gone, what remained seemed to be nothing more than a piece of element. The corrupted mage was unable to understand as the last viewing clone was gone.

_"Come out and face me, you brats!"_ Another Wizard demanded.

As soon as he said that, he was hit several times by a speeding red blur. However when he turned towards the blur, it was not Zi-O, but Geiz DriveArmor delivering a speeding Superman punch to the face.

"That was for kidnapping the princess, asshole!" the red knight roared.

_"I already know how to deal with that!"_ Another Wizard hissed, reading himself to use a gravity spell.

However, Zi-O summoned a tree root of his own to pin the Another Rider's arm to the tree the root came from.

"Sorry, but this was the plan all, along." Zi-O said, appearing in view. "Figured if you wasted your magic, it would lead you to slip up to try and focus on one person." He said, revealing his plan, "And now that your main way to use it is halted? Time to finish this." He said, pressing the buttons on the Ridewatches.

_**FINISH TIME! **_

_**WIZARD!**_

He unhooked the belt and spun it as the ridewatch gave him the power to end this Another Rider.

_**STRIKE! TIME BREAK!**_

Soon the elemental parts that were spawned from the clones soon glowed as beams of light connected and attached together to reveal a large spell circle, with Another Wizard in the center. Seems he planned a powerful spell to take out the red Another Rider due to his high magic tolerance.

"Come forth! **White Nova!**" Zi-O declared from the spell.

A dot of light soon came from the center of the seal, only for it to erupt in a powerful, magical light that bathed Another Wizard in it, sending torrents of magical might at the Another Wizard, only for it to erupt into an explosion. Upon dying down, laying there injured was Forbee and a broken watch, the reveal butler groaning in pain from the attack.

"Eh? Forbee was Another Wizard?" Subaru questioned as he and Emilia came into view, showing they hid during that fight.

"Hmm… I'm starting to remember now…" Emilia noted, holding her head, "Yeah… he was an ex-scholar at the Kingdom's Grand Council. I remember how much he hated me and wanted to find some way to be rid of me."

"Ouch, I was there when they threw him out" Rex realized, "And I was still a rookie back then"

"Then… how did he get into the estate?" Subaru questioned.

"That lies within the Ridewatch he had. With the power of Wizard, he must've altered all of our memories to make sure we wouldn't be suspicious of him." Woz noted, "Well, all but Maou here."

Cody nodded, "I… had a odd feeling about him when I saw him. You all remembered him so vividly, yet I couldn't even tell who he was, thus made it hard for him to act since his presence could pose a problem."

"Hence why he took her either during the night that first time, or in that fog, you caused." Rex said, looking towards Subaru.

"Yeah, I'm glad that 'future vision' came in handy…" Subaru hastily said, scratching the back of his head.

"Y-You… damn half-elf…" Forbee hissed in pain, "You shouldn't even be alive…"

Emilia could only frown as she kneeled down, "I don't know why you hate me so… but I pity that you have so much of this hate. You could've been an amazing councilman… but you lowered to assassination…. I hope you can figure out your life later on." She said, before standing up.

"Rex? Go ahead and take him into the city and with the proper reports." Woz ordered the knight, knowing this was over.

"Yes sir!" he answered before picking the prone Forbee up and zipping away towards the city.

Cody though, looked to Emilia as he could tell that those words the lost man said did hit her. He walked over to her before presenting the Wizard Watch.

"Here… it was yours to start with." Cody said to her. "And… while whatever he said, may have been hurtful… He's wrong. Thanks to you, I was able to survive here and find a nice place."

"Cody…"

"What I said about helping you achieve your future goal? I meant it. You deserve to be here, Emilia. So don't ever think that, even if you try to put on a smile for others." Cody said to her, a smile on his face as he tried to cheer her up.

She soon hugged the boy tight, causing him to blush for a moment before returning the hug.

"Thank you, Cody… I'm glad to have you here too…" She responded softly.

The two stayed like that for a moment while Subaru and Woz watched them.

"Ahh.. young love…" the herald sighed.

"Yeah…" Subaru agreed, though a bit less enthusiastic than Woz's response.

* * *

_Meanwhile, in an unknown location, it seemed like Cody and the others were being watched from within a crystal ball._

"_Seems Zi-O has obtained his first Ridewatch…" A distorted voice rang out. "Much faster than I expected."_

"_Should we do something about this?" a second voice questioned, "Perhaps he has caught onto us much sooner than we thought…"_

"_No. He doesn't know who hired Forbee in the first place. We still have time" the first voice reassured their companion._

"_Still… this seems worrisome. They couldn't have figured it out that fast, even with Zi-O's immunity to alterations." the second voice noted_

"_Perhaps the key comes from that other outsider…"_

"_Then for now, we watch and wait. If either outsider shows better potential? We know who to choose first."_

_Soon, a hand came over the crystal ball and dipped into it, pulling out a new blank Ridewatch in the process._

XXX

* * *

A/N:

**Striberx:** Heya minna! Sorry for the wait once again.

**HackerEX:** There was a lot on our plates and I do mean A LOT. But that's neither here nor there.

**Striberx:** Yup. Chap is done, already thinking on the next one and such. No point here other than to continue onward and explain anything for this story.

**HackerEX:** So let's start with the big one. The lie about Return from Death. Now anyone who's watched or read Re: Zero knows why It's a bad idea for Subaru to outright tell someone about Return from Death. However, that never stopped him from possibly lying about it.

**Striberx:** Right. We all know that if he tells the truth, either he or someone dies. Something we will touch on later, but for now, he's using this "Future Vison" lie to help out.

**HackerEX:** Pretty much, now the other thing. Isn't Geiz supposed to get WizardArmor? Well yeah, but that also doesn't stop him from using BuildArmor or Ex-AidArmor despite it being from Zi-O. Plus theoretically either Rider could use each other's Ridewatch if they wanted to, we just only seen the versions that the show displayed

**Striberx:** Yeah. Most of the cast will have some Ridewatches and will depend on their character and setting. Emilia being the first we know to use magic, made sense with Wizard. Plus along with her drive to better others through her ascension fitted well with Wizard's theme of hope.

**HackerEX:** Same with giving Ghost for Subaru given that both of them have died and came back to life, or Drive representing Rex's desire to become a hero just like his namesake. It's all mostly thematic choices.

**Striberx:** Yup, but there could be some we have no idea how to add in, so we may also have one off characters that we think of to give the Ridewatch to.

**HackerEX:** Yeah, they might even be references to past works that either of us has done. Hey, it's Zi-O, a celebration of everything that came before. We might as well throw in nods to our past works.

**Striberx:** Also, while these updates may seem slow. The other reason is to get things prepared for the next season of Re: Zero coming out very soon.

**HackerEX:** Not to mention Kamen Rider hitting the big 50 next year. I can't wait to see what Kamen Rider Saber looks like.

**Striberx:** Until then, later minna.


End file.
